DUKE 
UNIVERSITY 


DIVINITY SCHOOL 
LIBRARY 


“er. SS 
a, id 
. eo 
ee 
* 
' . 
, 
> 
4 
» 
7; + 
7 
‘ 
- 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Duke University Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/spirituallifeO1 nash 


“SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


BY OREN Te Lo NASH. D.D; 
Of the North Carolina Conference, M. E. Church. Southe 


WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
BISHOP O. P. FITZGERALD, D.D. 


NASHVILLE, TENN.: 
PUBLISHING Houvsz MrtTHopist EpiscopaL CHuRrcH, SouTH, 
BaRBEE & SMITH, AGENTS. 
1898. 


Entered, according to act of Congress, in the 
no 4 
. By L. L. Nasu, RY 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at 


i 


Div. Sj 
ay +K 
IV can Sy iss 


Preface to Second Edition 


Having a number of calls for this little book since 
the first edition has been exhausted, I have published 
this edition to meet the demand. It is now about 
eleven years since this book was brought out. There 
are a few changes I would make, if I had to write 
it over. I would elaborate some of the points, and 
endeavor to make my position more clear; but I 
would not change the teachings, as I am more fully 
satisfied, if possible, of the correctness of the doctrine 
stated. 

To aid the serious reader to comprehend my posi- 
tion, I will state the leading doctrines taught in the 
book: 


(1) The existence of a spirit world. 


(2) The total corruption of the human race while 
in a state of nature. 


(3) The awakening wrought in the soul of man by 
the Spirit of God. 


(4) The necessity of repentance. 


(5) The necessity of Regeneration, and what it is 
to be born again. 


(6) The growth of the spirit, after Regeneration. 


PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 


(7) This growth is under Spiritual Law. 
(8) The Spiritual Life a Unit. 
(9) Spiritual Life may be known by its fruits. 


The last three chapters, 1oth, 11th and 12th, deal 
with Eschatology, and give the scriptural doctrine of 
the state of existence after death both in the disem- 
bodied state, and after the Resurrection of the body. 


The 12th chapter deals with the second coming of 
Christ, in which the leading views held by believers 
in Christ are stated. There are some views, touching 
the meaning of the scriptures which speak of the 
second coming of Christ, that are not noticed: There 
are some who believe that the scriptures that speak 
of His second coming describe a process, and not an 
event. It will be seen that the post-millenarian doc- 
trine is accepted, and that the doctrine of the second 
coming of Christ in His human person, to judge the 
world, is believed by the author. As to the time of 
this event, the author makes no pretense to know 
anything, as that is one of the things the Father keeps 
in His own power, and it is not revealed to any crea- 
ture. This little book has been very kindly received 
by eminent Divines in various denominations; and it 
is hoped this second edition will meet with as kind 
reception from the Christian public as the first edition 
met with. 


The desire of the author is to do good, and 
strengthen the faith of believers in the only true re- 


PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 


ligion, which he fully believes will continue to meet 
the demands of our humanity to the end of time. 


it3 


As Bishop Fitzgerald says: It is written in “a 
reverent and earnest spirit; he appeals to scripture 
authority and common sense.” My appeal is cer- 
tainly to scripture authority and to the common sense 
of mankind. In this age of scepticism and intel- 
lectual doubt, we cannot do too much to counteract 
this spirit of unbelief. 


Hoping that the Good Lord will bless this effort 
in strengthening the faith of the Church, and enlarg- 
ing her Spiritual Life, this edition is submitted to the 
kindly consideration of the reading publlc. 


Be CWEL. 


Greensboro, N. C. 
August, 1909. 


Page 27—1st line, should read “‘terms’? _ 
Page 177—7th line from bottom, read seal | 


INTRODUCTION. 


THESE twelve cuapters are written in good, strong 
English style. They discuss the salient points of a sub- 
ject of profound and eternal interest. The spirit of the 
writer is reverent and earnest; he appeals to Scripture 
authority and common sense; his strong conviction is 
contagious and invigorating; his buoyant faith uplifts 
the faith of the reader. The spirit of the book is not 
controversial, though the author gives no uncertain 
sound in any utterance that he makes. Even among 
readers who might differ somewhat from his manner 
of stating some of his views, no offense could be taken. 
He is everywhere sweet-toned and brotherly. From 
such examination as I have been able to give to the 
work, amid pressing duties and some physical disability, 
I can and do hereby commend it to the reading Christian 
public as worthy of their friendly consideration. The 
polemics of the book are not aggressive nor objection- 
able. Its spiritual suggestion and stimulation will not 
be small to him who reads thoughtfully and prayer- 
fully. OQ. P. FirzGERALD. 


May, 1898. 
(3) 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER I. 
PAGE 
FREE, OPIREDUAL, SPHERE)... s...csece does 11 Se EC) 
CHAPTER I1. 
SONA BURAT, MAN SS... 5 css c's s0 a eetateatae ey 
CHAPTER IIr. 
SAW AKENED MAN C2. 0c. las esescees voles 39 
CHAPTER IV. 
CMON, i 'p.2 we iainig s/s a0 sie aie ecdeesoe 62) 
CHAPTER V. 
PRMGHON RATION 22, 00d 5.00-0g=csee ce ekeesy. Aw 
CHAPTER VI. 
SIESiERRAE, CROW TE). 2 2 as a5 de su, ale oes RSE re 
CHAPTER VII. 
irs (Aw OF SPIRITUAL LiFe. 50. c..c05656 ee 
CHAPTER VIII. 
Pam LINETY OF SPIRITUAL LIFE). fs. 0205255 -07 


CHAPI ER TX. 


oe PULE) OW) SPIRTEUAL IstRE ss sch ccee cc SEE 


6 CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER X. 
PAGE 


SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE DISEMBODIED STATE.. 139 


CHAPTER XI. 


SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE RESURRECTION STATE. 155 


CHAPTER XII. 


THe MILLENNIUM AND SECOND COMING OF 
OTURUST. ite aepetein axe a ovsteleiers oot tenet scene 167 


“For the invisible things of him from the creation 
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the 
things that are made, even his eternal power and God- 
head, so that they are without excuse: because that, 
when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, 
neither were thankful; but became vain in their im- 
aginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” 


(Rom. 7z. 20, 21.) 


9) 


SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


CHAPTER I. 


Tue SPrriTUAL SPHERE. 


OD has created two entities, and, so far as 
we know, only two: matter and spirit. No 
sane mind can question the real existence of either. 
‘Matter, we know, has an existence, because we 
are conscious of its presence, and through con-| 
tact with it, by means of our senses, it becomes to 
us a conscious reality. As unreasonable as the 
denial of the existence of material things may ap- 
pear to the common sense of mankind, its exist- 
ence as a real entity has been denied by those 
whose minds have been disordered and whose 
reason has been perverted. But consciousness is 
the highest tribunal; and if we cannot believe our 
consciousness, we can know nothing, and we are 
in the strongest sense of the term agnostics. 
Believing in the truthfulness of consciousness, 
and the reality of the existence of material and 
spiritual things, we shall not stop to consider the 
vagaries of those who question the correctness of 


Q) 


Io SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


cognition, or the truthfulness of apprehension, but 
proceed to study the reality of spiritual things upon 
this foundation, and to investigate spiritual phe- 
nomena from what we know of spiritual things, 
with the hope of rising higher and knowing more 
about what we should be most interested in know- 
ing. In material things we find lifeless, dead 
matter, and for convenience of classification we 
call this inorganized matter. Upon this founda- 
tion we find that the wise Creator has built vege- 
table and animal life. This we call organized mat- 
ter. We call this organized matter the vegetable 
and animal kingdoms. In the material sphere we 
have three kingdoms: the mineral, the vegetable, 
and the animal kingdoms. Above all these king- 
doms we have another, which we call the spiritual 
sphere, or the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ 
came into the world to reveal this kingdom to 
men. He claimed to be a King, and to have a 
kingdom. When he was arraigned before Pilate, 
and was asked, ‘‘Art thou a king?’’ Jesus an- 
swered, ‘‘ Thou sayest that I ama king. To this 
end was I born, and for this cause came I into the 
world, that I should bear witness unto the cruth. 
Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” 
(John xviii. 37.) Jesus Christ was always a king, 
and lived and reigned in the spiritual realm, even 


THE SPIRITUAL SPHERE. If 


in the days of his humiliation. He said: ‘‘My 
kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were 
of this world, then would my servants fight, that I 
should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is 
my kingdom not from hence.’’ (John xviii. 36.) 
That he might teach the nature of this kingdom, 
Jesus exhausted every figure of speech; but his 
disciples were so dull of comprehension they 
could not understand him. They always con- 
nected it with the material, visible world. Even 
when he said to them, ‘‘ The kingdom of God 
cometh not with observation,’’ they did not 
understand him. When he told them that they 
should not say, ‘‘ Lo here! or, lo there! for, be- 


29 


hold, the kingdom of God is within you,”’ they 
were still far from apprehending his meaning. 
To see this kingdom we must be born again. 
Although this kingdom is within us, we cannot 
realize it without spiritual life. The spiritual king- 
dom is the most real and substantial part of God’s 
creation. 

*‘For the things which are seen are temporal; 
but the things which are not seen are eternal.”’ 
All the phenomena of the spirit belong to the in- 
visible and the eternal. The.artist has the ideal of 
things, which he expresses in his work. The 
things themselves may be easily destroyed, but 


12 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


the ideal is indestructible. This truth is accepted 
by philosophy, hence ideas are regarded as the 
only real entities. 

«* While the idea gives rules, the zdea/ serves as 
the archetype for the permanent determination of 
the copy; and we have no other rule for our ac- 
tions but the conduct of that divine man within us, 
with which we compare ourselves, and by which 
we judge and better ourselves, though we can 
never reach it. These ideals, though they cannot 
claim objective reality, are not therefore to be 
considered as chimeras, but supply reason with 
an indispensable standard, because it requires the 
concept of that which is perfect of its kind, in or- 
der to estimate and measure by it the degree and 
number of the defects in the imperfect.’’ (Kant, 
“« Critique of Pure Reason.’’) 

It matters not how little we know of the realm 
of the spiritual, .it has influence over us, and we. 
are largely controlled by forces that belong to 
the spirit world. In the order of creation of the 
material universe, the higher is built upon the 
lower. ‘* Howbeit that was not first which is 
spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward 
that which is spiritual. The first man is of the 
earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from 
heaven.’’ (1 Cor. xv. 46, 47.) In the order in 


THE SPIRITUAL SPHERE. 13 


creation, the earth was first found; then vegetable 
life appeared; then the lower order of animal life; 
and last of all man was made in the image of God 
himself. The fall and redemption of man were 
in the mind of God from the beginning. Not that 
God ordered or caused the fall, but the plan of 
redemption and restoration of man to a place in 
the kingdom of God was no afterthought with the 
Deity. In man there is a union of the material 
and spiritual. He belongs to two worlds. ‘‘And 
as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall 
also bear the image of the heavenly.”’ 

There was a spiritual sphere before the material 
universe was created, and the inhabitants of this 
kingdom sang together and shouted for joy when 
God spread out the north over the empty place 
and hung the planets upon nothing. But it is 
with reference to man’s relation to the spiritual 
kingdom that the earthy comes first. It is the di- 
vine plan that ‘‘ that which is born of the flesh is 
flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is 
spirit.” There are, no doubt, myriads of inhab- 
itants of the spirit world who have never ‘‘ borne 
the image of the earthy.’’ The great mystery 
of the spiritual sphere is seen in the relation of 
man to this higher kingdom. ‘‘And without con- 
troversy great is the mystery of godliness: God 


I4 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, 
seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, be- 
lieved on in the world, received up into glory.” 
(r Tim. iii. 16.) This mystery engages the 
thought of angels. They study the question from 
above, while men study it from below. Man is 
the mystery of the universe because the material 
and spiritual both meet in him. Angels are his © 
servants: ‘‘Are they not all ministering spirits, 
sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs 
of salvation?’’ (Heb. i. 14.) But these things 
are hid from the natural man. ‘ But the natural 
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: 
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he 
know them, because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned.”? (1 Cor. ii. 14.) We might as well at- 
tempt to teach the blind how colors look, or the 
deaf the melody of sound, as to attempt to show 
the things that belong to the spiritual world to 
the natural man, until he receives spiritual sight. 
Hence we shall not be surprised if some things 
that are said, in our effort to describe the spiritual 
sphere, are looked upon as foolishness by those 
who know nothing of spiritual life. But be pa- 
tient with us, and it may be that you will, unex- 
pectedly to yourself, find that you are brought 
into a new world. 


THE SPIRITUAL SPHERE. 15 


The natural man is like the shipwrecked mari- 
ners who escaped from a sinking ship in a life- 
boat. After drifting until they were nearly fam- 
ished for water, they saw a vessel and cried for 
help. As they neared the vessel they called for 
water, and were told to reach over the sides of 
their boat and drink, for they were sailing in 
fresh water. Miles of fresh water were all around 
them, and they knew it not. The natural man is 
conscious that he needs something to make him 
happy. There is within him a longing for some- 
thing better than this lower world can give him. 
Here his pleasures perish with the using. He 
sees his cherished hopes blasted, and is disap- 
pointed in his fondest expectations. ‘The world— 
his world—passes away, and leaves him disap- 
pointed and lonely. In his sore distress he asks, 
‘*Ts life worth living?’’ and there is no answer but 
the echo of his own voice. He looks up to the 
stars, and they seem to mock his helpless grief with 
their merry twinkle. He studies all nature for a 
solution of his question, and a solace for his sor- 
row, but no answer comes to his troubled heart, 
and no light penetrates the sullen gloom that sur- 
rounds him. Like a solitary cloud, self-balanced 
and alone, he is in a universe of gloom. 

In this condition the kingdom of God offers 


16 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


him a refuge. The King calls him: ** Come unto 
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and 
learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: 
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my 
yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’” (Matt. xi. 
28-30. ) 

There is one mistake that keeps many from 
accepting this gracious invitation. They imagine 
the kingdom of God is a long way off. They 
measure spiritual things by material measure. 
The promises of God are all put off to be enjoyed 
in the future. Could this restless, troubled world 
realize that the kingdom of God is at hand, and 
its blessings within reach, would not a sunburst 
of happiness drive away the clouds of trouble 
and unrest, and bring peace to troubled hearts? 
When we think of heaven we put it away beyond 
the stars, and imagine that a home so far away 
cannot cure our present ills. When we think of 
spiritual beings, because we cannot see them with 
our natural eyes, we doubt their existence, and 
sink down into the valley of gloom. We are like 
Jacob when he went away from home to escape 
the fury of Esau, whom he had robbed of his 
birthright. He thought he was not only leaving 
home and friends behind, but God as well; and 


THE SPIRITUAL SPHERE. I7 


lay down on the ground with a heavy heart, and 
a pillow of stone. He was disconsolate indeed. 
But while he slept he had a vision. A ladder was 
let down from heaven, and the angels ascended 
and descended upon it. They surrounded him 
with their glorious presence and illuminated the 
place where he lay, until his sad heart was so filled 
with spiritual light that he awoke in a new world, 
and exclaimed, ‘‘ Surely the Lord is in this place, 
and I knew it not!’ We need a vision of the 
spiritual world. We need to know that the place 
where we dwell ‘‘is none other but the house of 
of God’”’; and ‘‘the gate of heaven.’’ The angels 
are around about us, and God, who is over all, 
stands above us ready to say: ‘“*I am the Lord 
God of your fathers, and to me all things belong. 
IT am able to supply all your need, and to give you 
an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away.”’ 

Faith in the spiritual is not an unreasonable 
superstition. It cannot be that a world like this— 
so full of evidence of wisdom, inhabited by such 
beings as men whose aspirations reach out into 
the infinite and eternal future, and whose instincts 
demand an interest in another and a better coun- 
try—is entirely disconnected from the spiritual 


realm. We cannot bring the spiritual world un- 
2 


18 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


der the government of natural law. We cannot 
apply linear measure to spiritual distances. We 
may flash our words around the globe with light- 
ning speed, but thought annihilates space inde- 
pendent of a wire conductor or a galvanic bat- 
tery. It is only the material part of man that de- 
pends on material contrivances, and only as he is 
connected with matter that he has need of mate- 
rial things. Neither can that which is purely ma- 
terial get into the spiritual world. Matter is not 
spirit, and never can be. ‘‘ Now this I say, 
brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit 
incorruption.’” (1 Cor. xv. 50.) ‘* The king- 
dom of God is not meat and drink; but righteous- 
ness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”’ 
(Rom. xiv. 17.) It is a spiritual kingdom, and 
our material part cannot enter its mysteries or 
share its joys; it is for our spirits. This does not 
prove that there will be no material bodies in 
heaven, but it does prove that we cannot carry 
our material thoughts and sensual natures into this 
kingdom. Matter and spirit are united in hu- 
manity, and after the resurrection our bodies and 
spirits will be forever united; but the distinction 
between matter and spirit will forever remain. 
Flesh and blood as it exists in this life will not be 


THE SPIRITUAL SPHERE. 19) 


the casket of the soul in the future; and yet there 
will be a resurrection of our bodies, and a glorifi- 
cation of them to suit the eternal character of the 
spiritual sphere. ‘‘It doth not yet appear what 
we shall be: but we know that, when he shall 
appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see 
him as he is.’? (1 John iii. 2.) Jesus Christ 
arose from the dead, and ascended into heaven 
with his glorified body. We do not know what 
changes passed upon his material body; but his 
spiritual part is the same that dwelt among men, 
and his body is the same that was nailed to the 
cross, in spite of its glorification. 

Science teaches us that light in a vacuum travels 
about one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles 
per second, and that at this great rate of speed it 
would take some of the fixed stars hundreds and 
thousands of years to throw their beams of light on 
our planet. But Jesus Christ arose with his glo- 
rified body to heaven, which may be beyond the 
stars, immediately; and ten days after he left, the 
Holy Spirit came upon his disciples, and filled 
them with the power of the kingdom of God. He 
has the power over material things to set aside the 
fixed laws that govern them, and to do what would 
be impossible to do in harmony with these laws as 
we understand them. The material is subject to 


20 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


the spiritual. The kingdom of God is the supreme 
kingdom. Miracles are manifestations of spiritual 
power and energy. To say that a miracle is a 
violation of the laws of nature is, in reality, an 
yemployment of language which in the face of the 
matter cannot be justified. Miracles are the 
manifestation of a power superior to matter and 
above matter and its laws as we are able to com- 
prehend them. Our efforts to interpret spiritual 
phenomena by material rules, and to bring the 
spiritual in subjection to the material kingdom, 
are manifestly an error. But it is hard for us 
to think in any way without using the language 
of earth, and the revelation that God makes to 
us is made in our language because we can un- 
derstand no other. There are, no doubt, things 
belonging to the spirit world we have no power 
yet to understand. ‘‘I knew a man in Christ 
above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, 
I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I can- 
not tell: God knoweth); such a one caught up 
to the third heaven. And I knew such a man 
(whether in the body, or out of the body, I can- 
not tell: God knoweth); how that he was caught 
up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, 
which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”’ (2 
Cor. xii. 2-4.) Such was the experience of St. 


THE SPIRITUAL SPHERE. 21 


Paul. He kept the experience to himself for 
fourteen years, and when he did speak of it he 
did not assert his own personality, but leaves us to 
infer who the man was who received this revela- 
tion. He carried through his life a knowledge of 
the spirit world that he could not make known to 
the Church. Why it was unlawful to tell what he 
heard we do not know; but it seems that he who 
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for 
us all, would not withhold from us any good 
thing if we could receive it in our present state. 
St. Paul had a special mission to the world, and 
he received special qualifications for his work; 
while he got an insight into the spiritual sphere 
he could not tell in all its fullness, he did make 
known enough of the mysteries of this kingdom to 
enable every believer in his gospel to adjust him- 
self to the kingdom of God. And yet: ‘‘As also 
in all his epistles, speaking in them of these 
things; in which are some things hard to be un- 
derstood, which they that are unlearned and un- 
stable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, 
unto their own destruction.’’ (2 Pet. iii. 16.) 
The whole revelation of God is an effort on his 
part to reveal himself and his kingdom to man. 
We say this with reverence, for we fully believe 
in the omnipotence of Deity; but we cannot but 


22 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


believe that the most stupendous work the God- 
head ever enterprised is the redemption of man 
and raising him up out of this natural, sinful world 
into his eternal kingdom. The creation of the 
material universe, and peopling it with sentient 
beings, was but the work of his fingers. His 
greater power is displayed in the restoration of 
man to the divine image. ‘‘According as his di- 
vine power hath given unto us all things that per- 
tain unto life and godliness, through the knowi- 
edge of him that hath called us to glory and vir- 
tue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great 
and precious promises: that by these ye might be 
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the 
corruption that is in the world through lust.” 
(2 Pet. i. 3, 4.) From all this we learn that sin 
separates us from God and his kingdom. It is 
the will of God that we should not only enter into 
his kingdom, but partake of his nature. ‘* Blessed 
are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” 
To see here means to possess, to enjoy; and the 
blessedness is not in the future, but in the present 
tense. While ‘‘eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man, the 
things which God hath prepared for them that 
love him,’’ yet ‘‘God hath revealed them unto 
us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all 


THE SPIRITUAL SPHERE. 23 


things, yea, the deep things of God.”’ (1 Cor. ii. 
9, Io.) 

While we cannot put the experiences wrought 
in us into language intelligible to the natural man, 
we can enter into the experiences of the king- 
dom of God. These experiences spring from our 
knowledge of Christ, ‘‘whom not having seen, 
we love; in whom, though now we see him not, 
yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable 
and full of glory; receiving the end of our faith, 
even the salvation of our souis.’’ 

Miracles are not tne best evidence of the exist- 
ence and power of God or of the reahty ot the 
spiritual and eternal kingdom of God. ‘The ne- 
cessity for the working of miracles to make God 
manifest to men is no compliment to our intelli- 
gence, but rather a rebuke of our stupidity. The 
divine power and presence of God may be seen 
everywhere by him whose spiritual eyes are 
opened. It is unbelief that asks for a sign, and 
no sign is given unto it. 

Truly Jesus turned water into wine at the wed- 
ding in Cana of Galilee; but is there any more evi- 
dence of his divine power in this miracle than may 
be seen by the eye of faith every day, as by nat- 
ural law, which is nothing but the divine manner 
of doing things, we see water turned into wine as 


24 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


it refreshes the vine and makes it bear the wine- 
producing grape? 

The days of miracles have passed away, but 
God is showing himself and his spiritual king- 
dom to believing souls in his providence. He is 
uncovering himself in his saving grace as Jesus 
Christ is revealed in human experience and as 
the kingdom of God is set up in human hearts. 
There is something unspeakably glorious in the 
experience of men when they enter the kingdom 
of God. This experience is more than a creed; 
it is a life. To enlarge this life is our object in 
these pages. 


“But the natural man recetveth not the things of 
the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto nim: 
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually 


discerned.” (x Cor. it. 14.) 


(25; 


CHAPTER II. 


Tue NaturaL Man. 


> 


Y the term ‘‘ natural man’”’ is meant an un- 

spiritual man, one who has been born of 
the flesh, but who has never been born of the 
Spirit. He is a child of fallen Adam. He is 
dead to spiritual life, and is so regarded in the 
Scriptures. While this is the condition of every 
unmregenerate man, tnere 1s a spiritual influence 
that exerts itself on every such man, that works in 
him much that is good. It is this spiritual pow- 
er thet plants within him that silent monitor we 
call conscience. What is conscience but the con- 
sciousness that the acts for which a person be- 
lieves himself to be responsible do or do not con- 
form to this ideal of right; the moral judgment of 
the individual applied to his own conduct, in dis- 
tinction from his perception of right and wrong 
in the abstract and in the conduct of others. It 
manifests itself in the feeling of obligation or duty, 
the moral imperative ‘‘I ought”’ or ‘‘I ought not.”’ 
Conscience is a witness implanted by the Holy 
Spirit in every human breast. The fact that there 
is such a witness is unquestionable, but the Author 


(27) 


28 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


of its existence is not recognized by the natural 
man. He thinks that his conscience is a part of 
himself, and is not derived from any other source. 
He attributes the work actually wrought in him by 
the Spirit of God to his own moral goodness, and 
for this reason does not know that he is spiritually 
dead. The natural man is a robber and a rebel. 
He robs God of the glory of his work wrought in 
humanity, and rebels against obedience to what he 
knows to be right. If he persists in this course, 
conscience itself will by and by cease, and leave 
him capable of committing the most atrocious 
crimes without compunction. 

In a description of the natural man it will be 
necessary to show man up in his most desperate 
condition. Let us bear in mind the fact that no 
man is entirely destitute of divine influence, and in 
a purely natural state, until he has done violence 
to his conscience, and seared it as with a hot iron. 

While we are all sinners by nature, yet ** where 
sin abounded”’ grace does ‘‘ much more abound.” 
We are born into the world with corrupt natures; 
and yet, under the gracious provisions of the 
atonement, all who die in infancy are uncondition- 
ally saved. The gracious influence of the Spirit 
of God will save every human soul who does not 
of his own volition rebel against this influence. 


THE NATURAL MAN. 29 


Man has a bad heredity by nature, and his envi- 
ronment in this world is not calculated to correct 
his evil bias. The work of his salvation, gracious- 
ly begun in him by virtue of the atonement, has 
much to overcome, both from inherited sin and 
bad external surroundings. When we consider 
the immense work involved in imparting spiritual 
life to fallen man, we need not be surprised at the 
slow progress made, even under the operation of 
almighty grace and love. This world is full of 
attractions for the natural man, and they are all 
opposed to spiritual life. The carnal nature is 
enmity to God; it is not subject to his law; nei- 
ther can it be. To establish spiritual life neces- 
sitates the crucifixion of the flesh, with its appe- 
tites and passions. St. Paul gives us a catalogue 
of the works of the flesh, and the doing of the 
things described in this list is perfectly natural to 
every unregenerated soul. ‘‘Now the works of 
the flesh are manifest, which are these, Adultery, 
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, 
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, 
strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, 
drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the 
which I tell you before, as I have also told you in 
time past, that they which do such things shall not 
inherit the kingdom of God.’’ (Gal. v. 19-21.) 


30 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


In the doing of these things the natural man finds 
his pleasure. The love of them is so strong that 
he has no power of himself to turn away from 
them. He has no desire to give them up, until 
grace works in him that desire. He has no will to 
depart from them until God works in him that good 
will, and enables him to work out his own salvation 
with fear and trembling; while God works in him 
to will and to do, of his own good pleasure. 

The pleasures of sin are a present possession. 
The opportunity for enjoying them is always at 
hand. The natural man can understand these 
things; he cannot understand the higher and bet- 
ter joys of spiritual life. Much has been said and 
written about man’s creation in the likeness of 
God, and of his fall. We do not propose to deal 
with the history of man, but in this connection 
deal with him as we find him. We accept without 
question or misgiving the account of creation giv- 
en us in the Bible, but we are not so much con- 
cerned to know where man came from as we are 
to know what he is and what is to be his final des- 
tiny. We find him just such a being as the Bible 
describes. When not assisted by divine grace, 
all the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart 
are only evil continually. He is a selfish, cruel 
being, living for his own gratification, and so un- 


THE NATURAL MAN. 31 


feeling that it has been justly said that ‘‘ nothing 
equals man’s inhumanity to man.’’ Placed as he 
is in a world where the beneficent Creator has 
made so many things conducive to his happiness, 
and where there is so much evidence that his Crea- 
tor is love, and desires his well-being; yet he per- 
sists in turning the blessings of heaven into a curse, 
and in making himself miserable, while he spends 
his time and energy in making his fellow-men un- 
happy. He knows what is right, and approves it; 
but pursues a wrong course, against his own rea- 
son and the happiness of himself and others. In 
all ages, and among all peoples, there has been 
acknowledgment that there is something wrong 
with humanity. This knowledge is not confined 
to those who have studied the sacred Scriptures. 
Heathen philosophers and sages have recognized 
this fact; and many of them have grappled with the 
difficulty, and made heroic efforts to reform the 
race. Some of these would-be reformers of the 
world’s irregularities have left the impression of 
their labors on the world, and the result of their 
teachings have lived long after they passed away. 
Let us study a few of these human teachers of hu- 
manity and their work. Confucius, the sage of 
China, whose teachings have affected a larger part 
of the human race than the teachings of any other 


32 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


mere man, saw that the world needed reforming, 
and spent his life in an effort to make men good. 
His teachings did not deal with the future, nor did 
he trouble himself with the origin of the race. To 
correct the wrong tendency of human life, and 
make the world better, by improving the minds 
and morals of mankind, was the task of the Chi- 
nese philosopher and sage. His success in making 
himself a name, and living for centuries in the 
minds and hearts of the inhabitants of the most 
populous nation on the globe, is attributable to the 
fact that he dealt with the world as he knew it, and 
taught the truth as he saw it. But his teachings, 
while accepted by millions, did not possess the pow- 
er to lift men up to the excellent moral idea he pos- 
sessed, or destroy the selfishness of the natural man, 
and make him what all could see he ought to be. 
In the study of Greek and Roman literature we 
find abundant evidence to prove that mankind 
lived far below the ideal of rectitude held by the 
wisest and best men of their day. Human nature 
is the same in all ages. The depths of degrada- 
tion into which the downward ‘tendency of man 
plunges him has left its own evidence in the history 
of the past, and the condition of the natural man 
of to-day proclaims the same deplorable fate for 
the race unaided by the power of divine grace. 


THE NATURAL MAN. 33 


While everything in nature moves in harmony 
with the law under which it is placed, man pre- 
sents, and has always presented, a notable excep- 
tion. To the thoughtful mind, we constantly see 
that we live in a world ‘‘ where every prospect 
pleases, and only man is vile.’? Education has 
been tried, as a remedy to correct man’s irregu- 
larities and bring him into harmony with the law 
under which he is placed. But so perverse is un- 
regenerate humanity that it becomes more hope- 
lessly wicked and contrary to the law of right as 
it ascends the scale of intellectual development in 
its natural state. So true is this that itis an axiom 
that ‘‘educated depravity is a machine of destruc- 
tion.’’ Cultivate the faculties of fallen man, and 
you but teach him the art of gilding sin, and to 
take away from it the ugliness that belongs to it, 
and make that appear attractive which would oth- 
erwise be repulsive. Look at humanity in squalor 
and rags, covered with filth, and breathing out 
blasphemy; and the sinner himself turns away 
from the loathsome sight in disgust. But take the 
same fallen, depraved thing and teach it the art of 
gentility, cultivate zsthetic faculties, polish it with 
polite manners, and give it the science of the dip- 
lomat, and you have increased its power for evil a 


hundredfold. But in spite of all this, sin in high 
3 


34 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


life is as loathsome, yea, more loathsome in the 
eyes of God than it is in its natural dress. Ex- 
tremes meet at every point in the life of fallen hu- 
manity. ‘The natural man, in the enjoyment of 
wealth and honor, can hide his ugliness from his 
fellow with the long robe and wide phylacteries 
of the Pharisee. But God judgeth not as man 
judgeth. He looks upon theheart. The fashion- 
able sinner, clothed in fine linen and purple, and 
faring sumptuously every day, who sows to the 
flesh, will be as sure to reap corruption as the 
most degraded and loathsome wretch that lies in 
the gutter. The cultivated, refined woman who 
knows nothing of spiritual life is as far from heay- 
en and happiness as her shameless sister who sells 
her soul for the bread that perisheth and disgraces 
her kind to the disgust of the wicked. ‘‘ But she 
that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” 
(1 Tim. v. 6.) To reach the natural man with 
spiritual life at either extreme of human society 
is the problem that confronts the kingdom of God. 
Much attention is given to the ‘‘ submerged tenth”’ 
—not too much, however—but at the other end of 
the line, in the higher walks of human society, there 
is a problem, the solution of which is so difficult, 
and the task so stupendous, that the bravest hardly 
dares to undertake it. The natural man seems 


THE NATURAL MAN. 35 


aware of the fact that this world is his kingdom. 
He will tolerate the kingdom of God if it does not 
thrust its demands across his plans and intrude its 
requirements into an interruption of his pleasures. 

The Son of God was tolerated while he confined 
himself to the working of miracles; but when he 
drove out the money-changers from the temple, 
and declared that the scribes and Pharisees would 
be cast out of the kingdom of God, their hatred 
knew no bounds, and their malice would accept 
nothing but his blood. There are many at this 
day who breathe the same spirit. They are not 
unnatural, but natural men. Even the grace of 
God is turned into lasciviousness, and all the work 
of uplifting humanity by the Lord, who bought the 
human race with his blood, is denied; and this not 
by the lowest and most degraded, but by the most 
favored of the children of men. Itisin the higher 
walks of human society that the most stubborn 
resistance to spiritual life is found. As the king- 
dom of God advances, and human society is ele- 
vated, the tendency is to turn the Church of God 
into an affair of human society, and use it as a 
means of furthering the sensual pleasures of the 
natural man. Where these conditions are met, 
human nature in its worst form is intrenched in 
its most impregnable fortress. Education and cul- 


36 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


ture alone are so far from saving man, and fitting 
him for the kingdom of God, that they often place 
him beyond the reach of those means designed 
for his salvation. 

The natural man must be crucified before the 
spiritual man can be raised up. ‘‘ Because the 
carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not 
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”’ 
(Rom. viii. 7.) We may polish the natural man 
ever so much, even until he appears beautiful, but 
his innate depravity and hatred to God will re- 
main. As a volcano clad in snow may glisten in 
the sunlight, a thing of beauty, while the boiling 
lava is ever ready to burst out in an eruption and 
spread desolation and death, so stands the natural 
man, with all the polish of the schools, but carnal 
and at enmity with God. | 

The conflict between the carnal nature and the 
Spirit of God isunto death. It isa fight toa finish; 
there can be no compromise. The cross of the 
Christian is not a beautiful jewel, to be worn with 
pleasure, but it is a rough instrument, and has 
blood on it. He who bore the cross for sinners, 
and despised the shame that He might save them, 
never offered them salvation from their fallen con- 
dition on easy terms. He knew what was in man, 
and did not fail to declare unto him the whole truth. 


“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and 
arise from the dead,and Christ shall give tnee light.” 


(EA pkestans v. 14.) 
(87) 


CHAPTER III. 
Tue AWAKENED Man. 


AN in his natural state is dead to spiritual 
things. He is called upon by his Maker to 
awake out of sleep, and to arise from the dead. 
To show him the true condition in which he is 
placed by his relation to fallen Adam, the strongest 
figures of speech areemployed. Heis told that he 
cannot know God without a spiritual birth. There 
is kindled in his soul pleasing hopes and longings 
after immortality. He is made to feel a sense of 
fear of something hidden from him in the myste- 
rious future. He cannot entirely divest himself of 
the idea that he must spend an eternity in a state 
of happiness or in a state of conscious suffering. 
All his reasoning cannot remove these hopes and 
fears entirely from his mind. He may not be in- 
clined to believe the revelation God has given him; 
but, after all his reasoning against it, the awful 
thoughtremains: ‘‘ These things may betrue; and 
if they are true, they are tremendous truths.” 
We cannot think that there is a rational human 
being who never felt these awakenings. Theyare 


wrought in every man by the Spirit of God. 
(39) 


40 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


They are more sensibly felt at some times than at 
others. The incidents and circumstances that sur- 
round us in life have much to do in giving power 
and effect to these awakening agencies. ‘The Holy 
Ghost is operating upon all human hearts and 
minds for this purpose. God is striving to arouse 
his human offspring to a sense of his presence and 
his love. These aspirations for a higher and bet- 
ter life are supernatural. They are flashes of light 
from the spiritual sphere. In them we see signs of 
spiritual life. If this light is followed, it will lead 
the earnest inquirer into the knowledge of things 
that cannot be conceived by the natural man. 

Life has been defined by science to be ‘‘ cor- 
respondence to environment.’’ The spiritual en- 
vironment is ever present, but man does not cor- 
respond to it until he is awakened. He lives and 
moves and has his being in God, and yet knows 
him not. Every revelation of Deity is an effort to 
arouse humanity to a consciousness of spiritual 
life. The thunderings of Sinai and the tragedy 
of Calvary have the same object. One appeals to 
man’s sense of fear; the other touches his sym- 
pathy. One shows the majesty of God; the other 
reveals his love. Sinai appeals to man’s reason, 
and says, ‘*God is just and will punish sin’’; 
Calvary appeals to his heart, and says, *‘ God is 


THE AWAKENED MAN. 41 


merciful and will pardon transgression.’’ All that 
could be done to arouse a lost world to a sense of 
danger and deliverance has been done, and yet 
the world sleeps on and knows not the power of 
spiritual life. The awakening is not complete. 
A few hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
come into the kingdom. Satan is busy applying 
spiritual opiates to all who will take them. As 
long as he can soothe the conscience of the 
awakened soul and quiet the guilty fears of those 
who are not in touch with God, he is sure of his 
prey. He creeps into the Church and does his 
most effectual work as an angel of light. Many 
truly awakened souls have been lulled to sleep by 
a profession of faith in Christ without a conscious 
experience of pardon. The shadow is too often 
mistaken for the substance, and a form of godli- 
ness is accepted that knows nothing of redemption, 
and denies the power thereof. But in the face of 
these difficulties the divine agencies for awaken- 
ing men are in operation, sometimes with more 
effect than others in individual cases. While the 
Spirit of God is always at work, yet there is in- 
disputable evidence that there are seasons of spe- 
cial spiritual power in the awakening and con- 
version of sinners. ‘These seasons come when the 
human instrumentality is brought in subjection to 


42 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


the divine agency. God has taken man as his co- 
worker 1n this great enterprise. The divine pow- 
er and grace are always present in the individual, 
and may at any time arouse any man into a state 
of deep concern for his salvation; but external in- 
struments are generally necessary to give this di- 
vine grace efficacy. Hence the need of ‘* seasons 
of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.’’ 
These seasons, in which there are general awak- 
enings, come when the human instruments are 
brought in touch with the Spirit of God. The 
first great awakening among men in this dispen- 
sation of grace occurred on the day of Pentecost. 
While the disciples of Christ were in one place, 
and in one accord, the Holy Ghost was poured out, 
and thousands were awakened to a sense of spirit- 
ual life. ‘* They were pricked in their heart, and 
said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men 
and brethren, what shall we do?’’ Whenever the 
conditions are met the awakening power of God 
comes to the world. The Church is the channel 
through which God sends this power. He does 
not depend, however, upon a great multitude; but 
where there are two or three assembled in his 
name he has a means with which to work. Our 
Lord seems to have confided his interest to the 
Church; and not only does his glory depend on 


THE AWAKENED MAN. 43 


the fidelity of his people, but the salvation of the 
world also. ‘There has never been a general 
awakening among men that did not come from 
the codperation of a few who were brought in 
touch with the Spirit of God. 

In view of the fact that it is necessary to the 
salvation of men that they must be awakened to 
the importance of spiritual life, and the Church 
occupies such an important relation to a lost world, 
the importance of this work is enough to wake the 
Church to a sense of her duty and responsibility. 
The Saviour of the world has given a charge to his 
people, and says to them: ‘‘ Occupy till I come.’’ 
There is encouragement given along with this re- 
sponsibility, for the Lord is ever ready to codper- 
ate with his people in all proper efforts to awaken 
a sleeping world. 

The means necessary to accomplish this work, 
so far as human instrumentality is concerned, is 
worthy of consideration. All who believe the 
Scriptures are agreed that a preached gospel is 
the divinely appointed agency intended to accom- 
plish this purpose. But there is a great diversity 
of opinion as to how the gospel shall be preached 
as an awakening agency. Some do not believe 
that it is necessary to appeal to a sense of fear 
of future punishment to awaken sinful men. But 


44 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


they certainly do not get this idea from the preach- 
ing of Jesus Christ or his apostles. If it had not 
been necessary to warn men of the danger of an 
endless hell to awaken them to a sense of the im- 
portance of fleeing the wrath to come, the Saviour 
would not have said: ‘‘And if thy hand offend 
thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into 
life maimed, than having two hands to go into 
hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 
where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not 
quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: 
it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than 
having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire 
that never shall be quenched: where their worm 
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if 
thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for 
thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one 
eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: 
where their worm. dieth not, and the fire is not 
quenched.’’ (Mark ix. 43-48.) 

From the teachings of the Scriptures it is plain 
that a sense of fear of future and eternal punish- 
ment is necessary to arouse men from the sleep of 
death to the joy of spiritual life. It may be ques- 
tioned whether any man was ever thoroughly 
awakened until he felt certain of the danger of 
future punishment. The Holy Ghost is sent into 


THE AWAKENED MAN. 45 


the world ‘‘to reprove the world of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of judgment.”’ 

The awakened man fears the punishment in store 
for him in the future. He is assured that when he 
dies without pardon he must make his bed in hell. 
A dreadful bed indeed; where rest comes neither 
day nor night, and where the voice of gladness is 
never heard. He is fully assured of this state of 
wretchedness, although he may have doubts about 
a blissful immortality for any one. This is the 
side of spiritual being first revealed to a sinner. 
He is ready to exclaim with the psalmist: ‘‘ The 
sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of 
hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sor- 
tow.) (Ps. exvi. 3.) 

Spiritual life is accompanied with the pains of 
spiritual birth. These pains belong to the period 
of spiritual awakening. This experience is not a 
creed; for many who believe the things revealed 
in the Scriptures, who are orthodox so far as the 
assent of the mind is concerned, have paid so 
little attention to the awakenings of the Spirit of 
God and the personal appeals of the gospel that 
they are strangers to the quickenings of the spirit 
of life. 

It is not only necessary that the gospel should 
be preached in all its faithfulness, but personal ap- 


46 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


plication should be made of its teachings. There 
is work here for all who personally enjoy spirit- 
ual life. Our Lord’s method of evangelizing put 
every one who came in touch with him to work 
upon others. When they had found the life they 
forgot self in the fullness of their joy, and brought 
their friends to him. It is impossible to live in 
daily contact with those who are fully alive to the 
powers of spiritual life, and not feel the mighty in- 
fluence. And yet we have professedly Christian 
families with unawakened members in them: par- 

ents who profess to know Christ, with godless | 
children, dead in sin, and growing more callous 
every day; wives who profess to know Christ, 
with godless husbands, who never seem to think 
it is any of their business to wake their compan- 
ions out of the sleep of death; husbands who 
claim to be Christians, with godless wives. It is 
this state of things-that hangs like a pall of death 
over a sleeping world. Should we wonder that 
the unsaved question the reality of our profession, 
and the existence of a spiritual sphere? These 
could not exist if all who profess to know Christ 
and to be in touch with the spiritual world were 


themselves fully alive. 


wer'\ 


“or godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation 
mot to be repented of; but the sorrow of the world 
worketh death.” (2 Cor. vit. 20.) 


(47) 


CHAPTER IV. 
REPENTANCE. 


T is not enough that man should be awakened to 
a knowledge of his condition as an unsaved 
spirit? He must codperate with God in the work 
of salvation. The first call of the gospel that 
comes to his awakened ears is a call to repentance. 
“<In those days came John the Baptist, preaching 
in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye: 
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’? (Matt. 
iii.I,2.) ‘‘From that time Jesus began to preach, 
and to say, ‘‘ Repent: for the kingdom of heaven 
is at hand.’’ (Matt. iv. 17.) ‘‘Except ye re- 
pent, ye shall all likewise perish.’”’ (Luke xiii. 
3.) It behooves us to attend carefully to this 
call, and learn what it means; for we are taught 
that there are two kinds of repentance. One is 
a partial or worldly repentance, wherein one is 
grieved for and turns from his sin merely on ac- 
count of the hurt it has done or is likely to do him. 
So a malefactor, who still loves his sin, repents 
of doing it, because it brings him to punishment. 
Then there is what is called an evangelical repent- 


ance, ‘which is a godly sorrow wrought in the 
4 (49) 


5° : SPIRITUAL LIFE. “% 


heart of a sinful person by the word and spirit of 
God, whereby from a sense of his sin, as offensive 
to God and defiling and endangering to his own 
soul, and from an apprehension of the mercy of 
God in Christ, he, with grief and hatred of all his 
- known sins, turns from them to God, as his Saviour 
and Lord. This is called ‘‘repentance toward 
God,”’ as therein we turn from sin to him; and 
**repentance unto life,’’ as it leads to spiritual life, 
and is the first step the awakened man makes to- 
ward eternal life. This repentance springs from 
godly sorrow, an experience hard to define so 
that those who never felt it can understand. It is 
an experience that belongs to the spiritual life, and, 
like every other experience of spiritual things, it 
must be felt to be understood. Nevertheless we 
will endeavor to describe it so that all may know 
whether they have received this grace; and if not, 
we will endeavor to point to the means by which it 
may be obtained, and leave none an excuse for re- 
maining in an impenitent state. 

Repentance is more than conviction for and 
sorrow on account of sin; it also involves turning 
away from sin. It is not simply turning away 
from sin, but involves a godly sorrow for sin, and 
herein lies the experience of repentance. We can- 
not be too careful to define the gracious work and 


* REPENTANCE. ‘ 51 


experience in repentance on the one hand, or to 
show the part we have in this work on the other 
hand... ‘‘ For godly sorrow worketh repentance to 
salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow 
of the world worketh death.”’ (2 Cor. vii. 10.) 
There can be no spiritual life among men without 
repentance. It lies at the foundation of the spir- 
itual structure, and is an important part of the 
building. It is not a grace to be experienced 
once and then laid aside, but goes along with us 
at every stage of spiritual progress. It is not nec- 
essary that we should commit some fresh offense 
after we obtain pardon, that the heart may con- 
tinue to feel the sweet experience of godly sor- 
row; for, paradoxical as the statement may ap- 
pear, the spiritual man gets real joy out of godly 
sorrow. It is the root of humility, and must abide 
in the soul of every one who remains in the king- 
dom of God. It is the opposite experience from 
the sorrow of the world which worketh death. 
There is life in every heart throb produced by 
godly sorrow. It puts the soul in touch with 
Him who bore our sorrows and carried our 
griefs. This view of the grace of repentance 
explains the expression of an early Christian 
father, who said: ‘‘ The Christian has his joys 
and his sorrows, but somehow his sorrows are 


52 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


sweeter than his joys.” Those who have felt 
the sweet meltings of heart that come from true 
repentance are not glad that they ever sinned 
that they might feel them, for this experience 
destroys all love of sin, and is the only grace 
that does; but they do rejoice because this grace 
brings them in touch with the meek and lowly 
Saviour, and enables them to learn of him. 

Repentance being the first fruit of spiritual life, 
it is of the utmost importance that it be genuine. 
If we begin wrong, we shall hardly ever get right. 

It is not necessary that we should be great sin- 
ners to be deeply penitent, for God is infinitely 
purer and holier than the best child of fallen 
Adam. The carnal nature in every human being 
is enmity to God, and must be crucified. Re- 
pentance makes all the promises of God sweet to 
the soul. It gives new life to prayer. It is this 
grace which brings us to the Saviour’s feet; that 
lays us low, and keeps us there. 

Repentance is the gift of God—that is, the grace 
that enables us to repent is his gift. He cannot 
repent for us, neither can we repent without his 
gracious help. That this grace is his free gift 
we learn from the Scriptures. ‘* Then opened he 
their understanding, that they might understand 
the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is writ- 


REPENTANCE. 53 


ten, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to 
rise from the dead the third day: and that repent- 
ance and remission of sins should be preached in 
his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusa- 
(Luke xxiv. 45-47.) ‘* When they heard 
these things, they held their peace, and glorified 
God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gen- 
tiles granted repentance unto life.”’ (Acts xi. 18.) 


2) 


lem. 


‘*And the servant of the Lord must not-strive; 
but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient; 
in meekness instructing those that oppose them- 
selves; if God peradventure will give them re- 
pentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and 
that they may recover themselves out of the snare 
of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his 
will.” (2 Tim. ii. 24-26.) From these quota- 
tions, and many others that might be given, we 
see that God gives repentance. Without the 
grace that works contrition in the soul, no man can 
repent. It is not enough to reform our lives and 
cease to do evil and learn to do well. Many have 
no doubt done this and fancied themselves Chris- 
tians who never truly and heartily repented of 
their sins. We must forsake sin from a spiritual 
motive. It is a hard thing for us to be sure of 
our motives. Ii the motives be pure, our whole 
life will be right; but if our motives be wrong, the 


54 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


whole life will be wrong. We may turn away 
from sin without any hatred of it, we may abstain 
from doing many things that would give us pleas- 
ure, not because God forbids the doing of them but 
for other considerations, and imagine that we are 
serving God, when in reality we are serving our- 
selves. True repentance destroys the love of sin, 
for there is nothing so painful to those who feel 
the grace of godly sorrow as the risings of car- 
nal desires. ‘They hate sin because God hates it. 
These experiences belong to the spiritual life. It 
is generally supposed that repentance is only the 
gate of religion, and all we have to do is to repent 
of our sins once and then leave this grace. St. 
Paul does teach, ‘‘ Therefore leaving the princi- 
ples of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto 
perfection; not laying again the foundation of re- 
pentance from dead works, and of faith toward 
God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying 
on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and 
of eternal judgment’’ (Heb. vi. 1, 2) but we 
must bear in mind that we are not taught to leave 
any of these things in any such sense as to dis- 
card them as being of no more service. We leave 
these first principles of the gospel just as we leave 
the study of the alphabet when we learn to read, 
or the study of the first principles of any science 


REPENTANCE. 55 


when we have become sufficiently familiar with 
them to know how to use them. Our knowledge 
of these first principles is our preparation for fur- 
ther progress. We cannot take a step in the ac- 
quisition of more knowledge without using these 
first lessons. We are not always conscious of the 
use we are making of them. I am using the 
Knowledge I have of the alphabet in writing this 
page; I could not progress at all without this 
knowledge, and yet I do not stop to think of the 
letters I am making. This is the only sense in 
which we are exhorted to leave any of the first 
principles of the gospel. Repentance is a grace 
that must abide in the soul as long as there is 
spiritual life. The only persons who cannot be 
saved are those who cannot be moved to re- 
pentance. As long as this grace abides in the soul 
it is evidence that there is a germ of spiritual life 
there. It produces a hungering and thirsting after 
righteousness, and has the promise of the Saviour 
that it is a blessed state. Faith is born of repent- 
ance toward God. While repentance is not the 
condition of salvation, it is necessary as a prepara- 
tion for faith. No impenitent soul can exercise 
faith in Christ. The assent of the mind to the 
truths of revelation may exist in an impenitent 
mind, but that trust of the heart which is a su- 


56 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


pernatural evidence or conviction that God loves 
us and gave his Son to die for us, and that by his 
death we are reconciled to God, is an experience 
founded on repentance. 

Let us inquire how this grace may be obtained 
and improved, so that we may enter into the king- 
dom of God. We should realize first of all our 
entire dependence upon God for the grace of re- 
pentance. Let us divest ourselves of all feelings 
of self-sufficiency. ‘Those who teach that we can 
repent just when we please are in error. We can 
repent when God pleases to help, and he stands 
ready to help us whenever we humble ourselves 
under his mighty hand. 

Having accepted the truth that our salvation is 
all of grace, let us be careful to seek an humble, 
contrite heart. Let us cultivate the sentiment con- 
tained in the following lines: 


O that I could repent, 
With all my idols part; 

And to thy gracious eye present 
An humble, contrite heart: 

A heart with grief oppressed 
For having grieved my God; 

A troubled heart that cannot rest 
Till sprinkled with thy blood! 

Jesus, on me bestow 


The penitent desire; 


REPENTANCE. 57 
With true sincerity of woe 
My aching breast inspire; 
With soft’ning pity look, 
And melt my hardness down; 
Strike with thy love’s resistless stroke, 
And break this heart of stone! 

Let us pray earnestly for the grace of repent- 
ance. God will not turn away any who sincerely 
seek this grace. He says: ‘‘Ask, and it shall be 
given you; seek, and ye shall find.’’ Let all who 
desire this grace begin immediately to bring forth 
works meet for repentance, by abstaining from all 
evil and by doing all the good in their power; but 
let them be careful not to be satisfied with any- 
thing short of the grace of repentance. As long 
as there remains in the soul any love for sin, and 
any pleasure in the doing of those things that we 
know are not for the glory of God, our repentance 
is incomplete. 

A careful study of God’s word, with special ref- 
erence to our own spiritual life, is a great aid to 
this grace of repentance. In all these means of 
grace let us keep the object of our pursuit before 
our minds, and remember that we are seeking 


spiritual life in all its fullness. 


“Wot by works of righteousness which we have done, 
but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing 
of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 
which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ 
cur Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we 
Shoucd be made heirs according to the hope of eternal 
eye.” (Fit. tit. 5-7.) 

(59) 


CHAP ER V). 


REGENERATION. 


EGENERATION, or the new birth, has been 
well defined as ‘‘ the final and decisive work 
wrought in the spirit and moral nature of a man 
when the perfect principle of spiritual life in Christ 
Jesus is imparted by the Holy Ghost.’? Wecome 
into the natural world by a birth, and there is no 
way into the kingdom of God but by a birth. 
*¢'That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that 
which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ (John iii. 6.) 
As the different kingdoms in the material realm 
are separated from each other by impassable bar- 
riers, so the kingdom of God is separated from the 
fleshly kingdom. The natural man can no more 
grow into a spiritual man than a vegetable can grow 
into an animal. God, in his goodness, has pro- 
vided a means whereby a natural man may be born 
into the spiritual kingdom. We say born into this 
kingdom; not grow into it. ‘There is a wide dif- 
ference in a birth into a state of existence, and a 
growth after we get into this existence. There is 
an idea among men that it is not necessary that 


they should receive this new life by a birth. 
(61) 


62 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


They frequently have the opinion that there is 
nothing in religion but a reformation of the old 
nature with which they are born into the world. 
They seem to think that there is nothing necessary 
but an outward, formal acceptance of a creed, a 
profession of faith in the Christian religion, and a 
formal observance of its requirements, without any 
radical change of nature, or the receiving of any 
spiritual help. The teaching of Jesus on this sub- 
ject is clear and convincing to any who believe in 
his divine nature and his mission to this world as ~ 
the only Saviour of men. As in the natural birth 
there is a quickening and form of life before birth, 
so it is in the spiritual life. The soul is quickened 
in the divine process of awakening and repentance 
before the birth of the spirit takes place. In this 
initial spiritual life there is no power to see the 
kingdom of God. The light of the spiritual sphere 
is excluded. The-awakened, penitent soul gropes 
blindly in search of the life that has already begun 
within it, but does not understand the phenomena 
of that life. When that life is explained, he asks: 
‘*How can these things be?’’ He looks to the 
natural world for an explanation of the mysteries 
of spiritual life, and exclaims: ‘‘ Can a man be 
born again when he is old? Can he enter a sec- 
ond time into his mother’s womb, and be born?’’ 


REGENERATION. 63 


But the natural life can shed but little light on the 
question. Even analogy fails, because of the total 
dissimilarity of the two lives. There is only one 
thing the awakened, penitent soul can do, and that 
is receive Christ by faith. ‘‘ He came unto his 
own, and his own received him not. Butas many 
as received him, to them gave he power to be- 
come the sons of God, even to them that believe 
on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor 
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but 
of God.’’ (John i. 11-13.) 

Human learning cannot explain this mysteri- 
ous, spiritual work. ‘‘ The wind bloweth where 
it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, 
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whith- 
erit goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spir- 
it.”” (John iii. 8.) 

This life begins in awakening and repentance; 
but if it stops there, it is an abortion. To every 
awakened soul the Scripture says: ‘‘And you hath 
he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and 
sins; wherein in time past ye walked according 
to the course of this world, according to the prince 
of the power of the air, the spirit that now work- 
eth in the children of disobedience: among whom 
also we had our conversation [or citizenship] in 
times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the 


64 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by 
nature the children of wrath, even as others.’’ 
(Eph. ii. 2.) 

This quickening is the work of the Holy Spirit, 
and is the result of the great love wherewith God 
loves us, and causes him to quicken us together 
with Christ and save us by his grace. 

The difficulty in the way of this spiritual regen- 
eration is the human will. While man has no 
power to produce in himself this new birth, he 
has the power to resist the operations of the Spir- 
it of God, and frustrate his work. To be born 
again, there must be codperation of the human 
with the divine spirit. God proposes in this work 
of regeneration to take man into his spiritual king- 
dom. Were he simply passive in the hands of 
God, there would be no failures in the spiritual 
life of any man; for the grace of God appears to 
all, and the initial life is begun in all. The faith 
by which Christ is received in regeneration is a 
voluntary thing. In discussing faith, it is some- 
times confounded with belief. Belief is an invol- 
untary act of the mind, when the evidence is ab- 
solutely conclusive, and therefore cannot be re- 
sisted; but saving faith is a voluntary trust in God 
through Christ, whereby the soul is left in his 
hands, and all resistance to the operation of his 


REGENERATION. 65 


spirit is stopped. As soon as any soul is brought 
into this state of trust it is born of the Spirit of 
God. So faith becomes the condition of regen- 
eration and the first mark or evidence of the new 
birth. Until faith is obtained, the door into the 
kingdom of God is shut and barred on the spirit- 
ual side. No human hand can move that bar or 
open that door. Christ says: ‘‘I am the door: 
by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and 
shall go in and out, and find pasture.”’ (John 
ag-') 

Faith puts us in possession of both worlds; so 
that he who has it goes into the holiest of holies, 
and communes with God, and then goes forth to 
enjoy all the blessings of this present life accord- 
ing to the will of God, and thereby finds pasture. 
This language does not convey the idea that the 
child of God goes in and out of God’s favor, do- 
ing right and wrong by turns. The new birth de- 
stroys the desire to do the things that God forbids. 
‘< Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; 
for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, 
because he is born of God.”’ (1 John ii. 9.) 

For fear that some babe in Christ may be dis- 
couraged by the text just quoted, I will endeavor 
to explain the apostle’s meaning. The apostle de- 


fines sin to be the transgression of law. Accord~ 
5 


66 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


ing to his definition sin is any want of conformi- 
ty to or any overt transgression of the decalogue. 
No one possessing a living faith in Christ, where- 
by God is continually breathing spiritual life into 
his soul, and his soul is continually breathing out 
love and prayer to God, can commit sin. This is 
a great privilege that the child of God possesses; 
and if any have not yet entered into this liberty, 
let them not be discouraged. Let us not strive to 
lower the standard of spiritual life. We cannot do 
this and breathe the atmosphere of the spiritual 
world. Let us avoid any effort to change the law 
of spiritual life that God has given, or to add any 
new requirements to that law. For ‘the law of 
the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testi- 
mony of the Lord is sure, making wise the sim- 
plest (Ps. ocixt 25.) 

If we find that we have not attained the liberty 
of the children of God, let us seek it with renewed 
zeal and earnestness. We are not to understand 
that it is impossible for any who are born of God to 
fall into sin; if this were the case, St. John would 
not have written: ‘‘ My little children, these things 
write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man 
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus 
Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation 
for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for 


REGENERATION. 67 


the sins of the whole world.’’ (1 John ii. 1, 2.) 
But he does teach that we cannot sin and enjoy 
the evidence of the divine sonship at one and the 
same time. Sin shuts the soul out of the kingdom 
of God, and the abiding Spirit of God shuts sin 
out of the soul. These states are incompatible. 
The child of God who falls into sin loses the priv- 
ilege of sonship; and yet it does not follow that 
he loses the initial life, which is manifested in 
awakening and repentance. He may fall away 
entirely, and get into that state where it is impos- 
sible to renew him to repentance; hence the great 
danger of falling into sin. Not every sin willingly 
committed after regeneration is of such a char- 
acter as to destroy the gracious influence of the 
Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. God does not 
withdraw the grace of repentance from all who 
thus sin; therefore we may depart from grace 
given and fall into sin and, by the grace of God, 
rise again and amend our lives. We should be 
careful to avoid either of two errors: first, that 
we cannot sin and fall away after regeneration; 
or, secondly, to deny that those who fall away 
after regeneration may be restored again to ¢he 
favor of God and the privileges of his children. 
This power to live without sin, in the sense of 
the term as used by St. John, is the privilege of 


68 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


every regenerate person. It is not only the priv- 
ilege of the regenerate, but it is absolutely neces- 
sary, to remain in this state of grace, that we do 
not commit sin. Whatever may be our theory of 
regeneration, if we accept the teachings of the 
Bible (and without this teaching we know noth- 
ing on the subject), we must admit that it is a 
state of existence in which we do not sin by trans- 
gressing God’s law. It is claimed by some that 
regeneration is not such a complete work as to fit 
the soul for heaven, and that a subsequent work is 
necessary. We do not so understand the Scrip- 
tures. Every person regenerated by the Holy 
Ghost is a child of God, and therefore an heir of 
eternal life. The youngest and feeblest child in 
the household of faith is no less a child of the 
Heavenly Father than the most mature member of 
his family. 

Let us be careful not to undervalue the high 
and exalted privilege of regeneration. ‘‘ For as 
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the 
sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit 
of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the 
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, 
that we are the children of God: and if children, 
then heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.” 


REGENERATION. 69 


(Rom. viii. 14-17.) There is no higher attain- 
ment than that of sonship, and this is the heritage 
of every regenerate soul. 

We do not mean to teach that there is no growth 
after regeneration (we shall discuss this in another 
chapter); but we do claim that regeneration puts 
us into the kingdom of God and makes us joint 
heirs with Christ, and that the youngest mem- 
ber of the family of our Heavenly Father shares 
just as fully in that love wherewith he has loved 
us as the most experienced member of his house- 
hold. Every regenerate child of Adam is a joint 
heir to all the treasures of grace and glory. God 
does not accept a divided heart; neither does 
he perform an imperfect work in the soul when 
he regenerates it. Jesus becomes all we need 
when we receive him by faith, and he gives us 
power to become the sons of God. ‘* But of him 
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto 
us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, 
and redemption: that, according as it is written, 
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” 
(Ge Cor: 1.30, 37: ) 

To sanctify means to set apart for holy uses, 
and every regenerated soul is set apart for God’s 
service; even the bodies of the regenerate are 
temples of the Holy Ghost. It isa mistake to con- 


70 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


found sanctification with growth.’ The perfection 
of the divine life begun in regeneration goes on in- 
creasing in all wisdom and knowledge until it at- 
tains a perfection of maturity that drives out the 
last remains of carnality and inbred sin: ** Till we 
all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowl- 
edge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto 
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: 
that we henceforth be no more children, tossed 
to and fro, and carried about with every wind of 
doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craft- 
iness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”’ (Eph. 
iV./E3, a.) 

While the child of God is a babe in Christ he is 
liable to be tossed about by every wind of doctrine, 
and there are never wanting those who lie in wait 
to deceive. Those who are of this class are not 
always intentional deceivers; but many who mean 
well get a perverted view of the work of salvation, 
and pervert the souls of the children of God. 

As much has been said about a second work of 
grace upon the hearts of believers, distinct from 
regeneration, let us calmly examine the subject. 
The real question at issue is this: Does the Bible 
teach, and Christian experience confirm, the doc- 
trine that there is, subsequent to regeneration, a 
second radical and instantaneous work of divine 


REGENERATION. Wt 


grace within and upon the moral nature of the re- 
generate believer which must take place before 
death in order to complete salvation from sin? 
From what has already been said in these pages, 
the serious reader no doubt has seen that no such 
work is admitted by the author, as necessary to 
spiritual life and eternal salvation. That the atone- 
ment of Christ provides for the salvation from all 
sin, for all who believe, may be abundantly proved 
bythe following texts of Scripture: ‘‘ He was man- 
ifested to take away our sins. . . . For this 
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he 
might destroy the works of the devil.’’ (1 John 
iti. 5,8.) ‘* Our old man is crucified with him, 
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that 
henceforth we should not serve sin.’’ (Rom. vi. 6.) 
‘“'They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh 
with the affections and lusts.”’ (Gal. v. 24.) 
‘‘The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us 
from all sin. . . . He is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all 
unrighteousness.”’ (i John i. 7-9.) ‘‘If a man 
therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a 
vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the 
Master’s use, and prepared unto every good 
work.”’ (2 Tim. ii. 21.) ‘* Christ gave himself 
for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, 


72 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


and purify unto himself a peculiar people.’’ (Tit. 
li. 14.) 

All these promises belong to every regenerated 
soul; and we find nothing in the Bible that denies 
them the privilege of claiming them, or excuses 
them living below the standard here given. Holi- 
ness, sanctification, perfection, perfect love, are 
also provided for all who are born of God, in and 
through the atonement: ‘‘ For by one offering he 
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” 
(Hebexoa4,) ‘* This is the will of God, even 
your sanctification.’’ (1 Thess. iv. 3.) ‘And 
the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and 
I pray God your whole spirit and soul and 
body be preserved blameless.’’ (1 Thess. v. 23.) 
‘“¢If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, 
and his love is perfected inus. . . . Godis 
love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, 
and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect. 

Perfect love casteth out fear.’? (1 John 
iv. 12-18.) ‘‘ But whoso keepeth his word, in 
him verily is the love of God perfected.’’ (1 John 
ii. 5.) ‘* Love is the fulfilling of the law.” 
(Rom. xiii. 10.) ‘* Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and 
with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and 
thy neighbor as thyself.”’ (Luke x. 27.) ‘* Fol- 


REGENERATION. 73 


low peace with all men, and holiness, without 
which no man shall see the Lord.’’ (Heb. xii. 
14.) ‘As he which hath called you is holy, so be 
ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is 
written, Be ye holy; for Iam holy.”’ (1 Pet. i. 
15.) ‘* Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word 
is truth. . . . And for their sakes I sanctify 
myself, that they also might be sanctified through 
the truth.”” (John xvii. 17-19.) ‘‘And the Lord 
make you to increase and abound inlove, . . . 
to the end he may stablish your hearts unblamable 
in holiness before God.”’ (1 Thess. iii. 12, 13.) 
‘‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
which is in heaven is perfect.’’ (Matt. v. 48.) 
‘*Not as though I had already attained, either 
were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I 
may apprehend that for which also Iam apprehend- 
ed of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself 
to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, for- 
getting those things which are behind, and reach- 
ing forth unto those things which are before, I 
press toward the mark for the prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, 
as many as be perfect, be thus minded.”’ (Phil. 
iti. 12-15.) ‘* Leaving the principles of the doc- 
trine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.”’ 
(Heb. vi. 1.) ‘« Now the God of peace . . . 


74 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


make you perfect in every good work to do his will, 
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his 
sight.’ (Heb. xiii. 20, 21.) ‘* Mark the perfect 
man, and behold the upright: for the end of that 
man is peace.’’ (Ps. xxxvil. 37.) 

That sanctification, holiness, perfection, salva- 
tion from all sin, perfect love, are all included in 
that ideal of religion which is set forth before us in 
the quotations above made there can be no doubt. 
But do any or all of them point unmistakably to a 
second instantaneous and radical work of grace, 
subsequent to regeneration, as the experience by 
which those who have been regenerated are saved 
from all inward sin, and perfected in holiness? 
or do they simply recognize all these things as 
included in that ideal experience, character, and 
life which go to make up the definition given in 
the Bible of the true religion of Christ, obtained 
in regeneration? We believe all these promises 
and privileges belong to every one born of the 
Spirit; and if any man lives below the standard 
here given, he needs the grace of regeneration; 
whether it be called a second blessing, a third, or 
a fourth, or a hundredth blessing. 

A mistake in a vital doctrine of the only true 
religion must be attended with harm. Observant 
people have noted a spirit of censoriousness and 


REGENERATION. 75 


arrogance in the manner of many who have pro- 
fessed this second radical and instantaneous work, 
called sanctification; and however good the inten- 
tion of those who have taught this doctrine, it can- 
not be denied that the fruit has not been good. 

Nothing short of the perfection taught in the 
Bible can suffice; and if it takes a thousand bless- 
ings to put and keep us in this state, let us not be 
content until they are all obtained, and we are able 
to walk with our Lord in white and breathe tne 
air of the spiritual sphere. 

We cannot deal with the experiences of men, 
but our Lord gives us a universal rule by which 
every life may be tried: ‘‘ By their fruits shall ye 
know them.”’ The fruits of spiritual life will grow 
wherever this work of regeneration is wrought. 
Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- 
ness, faith, meekness, temperance, are the fruits 
of regeneration. Unless we bring forth these fruits, 
we have no right to claim the humblest place in 
the kingdom of God. 

God is not the author of confusion, and the 
manifestations of spiritual life are not to be seen in 
wild ravings and senseless excitement. There is 
emotion in this life, but it is that deep spiritual 
joy and peace that fill the soul of the child of God 
with foretastes of heavenly felicity. 


46 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


Let us stand in the ways and see, and ask for 
the old paths, and walk therein. If we do this. we 
shall not err on either hand. A caricature of spir- 
itual life may bring the holiest things of our reli- 
gion into contempt, and do much harm to those who 
know nothing of the truth as it is in Jesus. 

In spite of all the obstacles in the way of the 
kingdom of God, stillhe saves us. ‘* Not by works 
of righteousness which we have done, but accord- 
ing to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of re- 
generation, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.’’ 
Whatever men may say, regeneration saves us. 


“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our 
_ Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory 
both now and forever. Amen.” (2 Pet. tit. 28.) 


(77) 


CHAPTER VI. 
SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 


ROWTH is the normal condition of a living 
thing. In the material sphere, as soon as 
growth ceases, decay begins. It may be very slow 
and imperceptible, but there is a sure tendency 
toward death. There is no standing still. We our- 
selves show signs of this decay when our bodies 
cease to develop. Look at the vegetable kingdom 
for an exposition of this truth. As soon as a plant 
or a tree ceases to grow, how soon it begins to ripen 
for death! We may not be able to understand the 
deep mystery of life in any of its phases, but we 
can see these signs of life, development, decay, 
followed by death. Our Lord himself points to 
vegetable life as an illustration of the growth in his 
kingdom. ‘‘ For the earth bringeth forth fruit of 
herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the 
full corn in the ear.’? (Mark iv. 28.) It is not 
long after the blade and the ear stop growing, 
before the full corn in the ear is ripe; and if not put 
into the garner, it falls to the earth and decays. 
The analogy between physical and spiritual 


things fails at many points, but physical things 
(79) 


80 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


bear a sufficient likeness to spiritual things to be 
used by Him who spoke the truth infallibly for 
purposes of illustration. The deep mystery of life 
was all plain to the mind of the Son of God. He 
knew the hidden secrets of all life, for he is the 
Author of life. Man sees the surface manifesta- 
tions of vitality. In the physical sphere there are 
birth, growth, decay, and death. Birth and growth 
belong to spiritual life, and here the analogy stops. 
Those who are spiritually alive grow in this life, 
but never die. ‘*‘ Martha saith unto him, I know 
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the 
last day. Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrec- 
tion, and the life: he that believeth in me, though 
he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever 
liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”” (John 
xi. 24-26.) Death has no place in the spiritual 
sphere; not in the sense of decay and dissolution. 
There is such a thing as spiritual death, but it con- 
sists in separation from God and in conscious 
wretchedness. There is no such thing as maturi- 
ty in spiritual life in any such sense as implies ces- 
sation of growth and spiritual development; and we 
should never think of a spiritual state so mature 
that spiritual growth has ceased. The more knowl- 
edge we possess, the easier knowledge is acquired ; 
and the more grace we possess, the more rapidly 


SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 81 


we grow in grace and in likeness to God. The 
analogy between natural and spiritual things fails 
at this point also, for when a tree reaches maturity 
it begins to decline. 

There is no such thing as either instantaneous 
or gradyz. development to such a state of perfec- 
tion that we do not develop into still higher attain- 
ments in spiritual life. But, while this is so, there 
are states known as states of spiritual infancy, 
youth, and manhood. There are ‘‘ babes in 
Christ,’’ who must be fed with milk; and there 
are adults, who can eat stronger food, and do the 
work of men in God’s service. We do not object 
to the terms ‘‘ mature Christians,’’ if they are used 
in this sense; but to use them in any sense that 
implies any such maturity that does not admit of 
larger growth and greater development is a dan- 
gerous error. We must never suppose that Chris- 
tian growth ever reaches an altitude in which the 
soul remains in the same state. There are no sud- 
den leaps that land the Christian, at one mighty 
bound, into a state of maturity that admits of noth- 
ing higher; neither can he grow into such a state 
of perfection that growth ceases because the soul 
has attained all there is in the kingdom of grace. 
Such a state of perfection is not attainable in this 


life, nor in that which is to come. As asymptotical 
6 


82 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


lines may run on side by side forever, and never 
touch each other, so may the life of the Christian 
grow on forever by the side of the perfect God- 
life, and yet never reach a point where it may not 
continue to approach that grand ideal expressed in 
the injunction: ‘‘ Be ye perfect, even as your Fa- 
ther in heaven is perfect.”’ 

The child of God never ceases to grow in grace 
and in knowledge. This is true both in this life 
and in that life which is to come. This growth is 
more or less rapid, according to conditions and cir- 
cumstances; but there must be growth if there is 
healthy spiritual life. Here we may find an illus- 
tration in the vegetable kingdom. Look at a stalk 
of corn sprung from a grain dropped in a ditch 
bank. The soil is rich, and the seed is good; but 
the plant is smothered by briers and weeds. It is 
stunted and yellow, and brings forth no fruit to 
perfection. Put the young Christian in such sur- 
roundings, and the spiritual life will be chilled and 
unfruitful, and without great effort such environ- 
ment will result in spiritual death. But spiritual 
life may exist and grow in spite of unfavorable sur- 
roundings and circumstances. ‘The spiritual child 
who is in the midst of temptations and evil influ- 
ences, but who withstands them, and maintains a 
steadfast faith in God and walks uprightly, will 


SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 83 


develop a stronger Christian character, and be all 
the nobler from the fact that he overcame his evil 
environment. This can only be done by the pow- 
er of a consecrated will and by the help of the 
Holy Spirit. 

Growth in grace varies in different persons, 
both in rapidity from a given starting point, and in 
spiritual comprehensiveness. Every regenerated 
soul grasps everything in sight at the beginning of 
spiritual life. Whatever is recognized as sinful is 
forsaken, and whatever is known to be the duty of 
a child of God is done. He believes all that is re- 
vealed to his mind as the truth of God. But as he 
grows, his perception of truth and duty is enlarged, 
and he discovers sins to be forsaken and duties to 
be done that he did not see at the time of his spir- 
itual birth. 


One duty done, we see higher; 
That brings us greater light, 

And we see higher still; 

That performed, and a flood of light 


Brings infinite progression. 


As fast as the divine light reveals imperfection, 
the child of God strives to free himself from it 
and come up to the perfect ideal. The child of 
God is not under condemnation as long as he re- 
pents of everything he discovers to be sinful in 


84 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


thoughts and feelings as well as acts; and by this 
- he may know his relation to God, for if a revela- 
tion of existing sin comes to him he immediately 
repents of, forsakes, and renounces it by the very 
instincts of that divine life. This he must do, or 
part company with the Holy Spirit. In this sense 
only he grows less sinful as he grows in grace and 
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We 
have said that we believe it is a mistake to say 
that we grow into sanctification; for the term 
means to devote a person or thing to holy uses. 
Every child of God must be devoted to God at 
the beginning of the spiritual life; and growth in 
grace presupposes that the offering is complete. 
When we take the offering off the altar we are in 
a backslidden state, and not in the enjoyment of 
spiritual life at all. 

We are not to concern ourselves about growth 
per se, for we cannot add one cubit to our stature; 
but we are to induce spiritual growth by adjusting 
ourselves to the law of spiritual life. ‘The use of 
the means of grace is as necessary to spiritual 
growth as food and drink, air and exercise, etc., 
are to physical development. ‘To grow spiritually 
we must increase in the knowledge of the things 
of God. Jesus Christ is not the same being in 
the conception of all believers. He honors the 


SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 8 5 


smallest faith in him that moves the believer to 
forsake sin and trust in him for salvation, and in 
this sense he will not break the bruised reed or 
quench the smoking flax; but he does not will that 
we should remain in a state of infancy touching 
his person, character, and work. Often did he 
say to his disciples, as they were slow to appre- 
hend him and their relation to him: ‘‘O ye of 
little faith!’’ They grew in grace and in knowl- 
edge by their contact with him from day to day; 
and yet there were constant revelations of power 
and goodness manifested in his life that surprised 
them. They saw him heal the sick, open the eyes 
of the blind, raise the dead, and feed the multi- 
tude in a miraculous way; but when they awoke 
him during the storm on the Sea of Galilee, and 
he commanded the winds and the waves and they 
obeyed his voice, they were ready to exclaim: 
‘¢ What manner of man is this! for he command- 
eth even the winds and water, and they obey 
him.’ (Luke viii. 25.) ‘*‘But grow in grace, 
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ’? (2 Pet. iii. 18) links growth in 
grace and the knowledge of Christ together, and 
we cannot grow in grace without growing in this 
knowledge. The more we know about him the 
more faith we can have in him, and the more we 


86 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


can love him. It is the work of the Holy Ghost 
to show believers the things of Christ: ‘* Howbeit 
when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide 
you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; 
but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: 
and he will show you things to. come. He shall 
glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall 
show it unto you.’ (John xvi. 13, 14.) As the 
genial warmth of the sun and the refreshing show- 
ers are necessary to vegetable growth, so the Holy 
Spirit coming upon the soul in refreshing and en- 
lightening power is necessary to spiritual growth. 
‘‘ For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole 
family in heaven and earth is named, that he 
would grant you, according to the riches of his 
glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit 
in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your 
hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and ground- 
ed in love, may be able to comprehend with all 
saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, 
and height; and to know the love of Christ, 
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled 
with all the fullness of God.’’ (Eph. iii. 14-19.) 
Here, in this matchless prayer of St. Paul for 
the Ephesian church, we have the idea of spirit- 
ual growth in its highest expression: the mighty 


SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 87 


strengthening of the indwelling Spirit, the abid- 
ing Christ, the soul rooted and grounded in love, 
the enlarged comprehension, until the soul takes 
in, with all saints, the breadth and length and 
depth and height of the love of the ever-present 
Christ. To have this knowledge of Christ, we 
must study him in the revelation we have of him 
in the Bible. We must add to this experience, 
which comes to us day by day; if we are watch- 
ful and prayerful, our experiences will afford us 
new views of Christ, and as we grow in years we 
will grow in grace and knowledge. 

While the exhortation is given to grow in grace 
and in the knowledge of Christ, the matter of 
growth is somethimg we need not concern our- 
selves about. All we need to do is to meet the 
conditions; the growth will take care of itself. 
And hoping to be helpful in the work of bringing 
the reader to a proper adjustment of himself to 
these conditions, we will discuss the law of spirit- 
ual life in another chapter. This law is revealed 
in the gospel of his Son, our Saviour. In all I 
have said, or shall say, in this little book I am 
simply endeavoring to unfold the gospel as I see 
it. I am fully aware of the inability of man to 
add anything to the revelation of truth given 
in his word, and yet we may be helpful to our 


88 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


fellow-men by presenting his truth from our point 
of view. I am not attempting to be exhaustive, 
but suggestive in what I have to say, and have 
no doubt that the serious reader will be greatly 
helped by what I am unable to write, as he sees 
and studies the question from his own standpoint. 


“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus 
hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” 
(Rom. vitz. 2.) 


(89) 


CHAPTER VII. 
Tue Law or SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


OD is the Giver of all life and the Source 

of all law. Law is the right adjustment of 
things, and righteousness is the fundamental prin- 
ciple of the divine law everywhere in the universe. 
Law in the spiritual sphere is immutable and un- 
wavering; and yet there is provision for the sal- 
vation of fallen man, although he has forfeited his 
right to live by breaking the law. Herein is the 
mystery of the universe. How can God be just, 
and the Justifier of the ungodly? The law of 
spiritual life is explained in the gospel alone. 
The incarnation and sacrificial death of the Son 
of God is the only ground of hope for the human 
race, and reveals God’s justice and his mercy to 
all created intelligent beings. His revelation to 
man begins with a revelation of his righteousness. 
At his creation he places man under the same 
moral law that governs all moral beings throughout 
his universal empire. The transgression of the 
law brought death into the world, and the fulfill- 
ing of the law by Jesus Christ brings life within 
reach of a fallen race. ‘‘There is therefore now 


(91) 


g2 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, 
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus 
hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”’ 
(Rom. viii. 1, 2.) The gospelis here called ‘‘ the 
law of the Spirit of life’’; and, whatever it may be 
or may not be to the angels, to men the gospel 
of Jesus Christ is the law of spiritual life. To 
understand its rich provisions, and partake of the 
high privileges of this gospel is the chief duty and 
highest privilege of the human race. The gospel 
is founded on the righteousness of God, and is as 
full an expression of his justice as itis of his grace. 
‘* If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
righteousness.’’ (1 John i. 9.) God could not 
give spiritual life at the expense of his righteous- 
ness. The Judge of the whole earth cannot fail to 
do right. The righteousness of God is the founda- 
tion of all faith, all hope, andalllove. Righteous- 
ness is rightness; and if there should be any dan- 
ger of any change in Deity, from a being of per- 
fect rectitude, the foundations would be moved; 
and ‘‘ if the foundations be destroyed, what can 
the righteous do’’? 

There is a sentimental idea of love that loses 
sight of God’s inflexible righteousness and justice. 


THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 93 


We sometimes think of the law as all severity, and 
the gospel as all mercy and love; whereas the 
gospel is the highest expression of justice as well 
as of love and mercy. The law as it exists apart 
from the atonement of Jesus Christ has in it no 
place for pardon. In teaching the law under the 
old dispensation there was no provision in the cer- 
emonial law for the pardon of the highest grade of 
offenses. Adultery and murder belonged to that 
class of sins for which the Lord did not provide 
for pardon under the Levitical priesthood. Hence 
when David had committed these sins he did not 
look for priestly absolution. When he cried, 
‘‘ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou 
God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing 
aloud of thy righteousness. . . . For thou 
desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou 
delightest not in burnt offering ’’ (Ps. li. 14-16), 
he acknowledged the need of a higher and broad- 
er law to meet the exigencies of his case than was 
found in the sacrifices and offerings of the Mosaic 
dispensation. ‘The gospel alone contains the pro- 
vision of pardon that meets all the requirements of 
fallen humanity. ‘Be it known unto you there- 
fore, men and brethren, that through this man is 
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by 
him all that believe are justified from all things, 


94 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


from which ye could not be justified by the law of 
Moses.” (Acts xiii. 38, 39.) When David had 
committed his great sin, God did not send a priest 
to him; neither did he send David to a priest; but 
he sent a prophet, and David looked away be- 
yond the rites and ceremonies of Judaism to the 
only Source of pardon and life. 

The rites and ceremonies of Judaism were in- 
deed the shadow of this law of life; but they made 
nothing perfect; ‘‘but the bringing in of a better 
hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.”’ 
(Heb. vii. 19.) We see a figure of this law of life 
in all the rites and symbols of Jewish worship. In 
the ark of the covenant we see the tables of stone 
containing the law; the pot of manna, declaring 
God’s providence in the sustenance of life; and 
Aaron’s rod that budded, proclaiming the necessi- 
ty of a living priesthood, which is only fulfilled in 
him who is our ‘‘ great High Priest, that is passed 
into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.’’ (Heb. 
iv. 14.) 

The high priest under the Mosaic dispensation 
could enter into the holiest of holies only once a 
year, and he could not go in without blood. ‘The 
mercy seat was over the ark, and there the blood 
was sprinkled; indicating the great mercy seat 
sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, which is the only 


THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 95 


blood that can take away sin. Of the sacrifices 
offered under the Mosaic dispensation St. Paul 
says: ‘For it is not possible that the blood of 
bulls and of goats should take away sins. Where- 
fore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, 
Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body 
hast thou prepared me: in burnt offerings and 
sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then 
said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is 
written of me) todo thy will, O God.’’ (Heb. 
x. 4-7.) 

The gospel is in harmony with the righteousness 
of God, because it is the right adjustment of fallen 
man to the law of righteousness that governs all 
spiritual beings. There is no compromise made 
with wrong. Man is redeemed by the blood of 
Christ. The law of righteousness that has always 
existed as the eternal rule of right is preserved in- 
violate. In the death of Christ as a ransom for 
the human race the penalty of the broken law is 
fully paid. Forgiveness of sin cannot possibly be 
reconciled with righteousness without propitiation ; 
but the blood of Christ blots out transgression for 
all who believe in him, and puts man under the law 
of life, and says to him: ‘‘And you, being dead 
in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, 
hath he quickened together with him, having for- 


96 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


given you all trespasses; blotting out the hand- 
writing of ordinances that was against us, which 
was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, 
nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled princi- 
palities and powers, he made a show of them open- 
ly, triumphing over them in it.’’ (Col. ii. 13-15.) 
The law of spiritual life as revealed in the gospel 
is in harmony with the law of life as seen in the 
physical kingdom. All life in the physical sphere 
is conditioned upon death. ‘There is no exception 
to this law. From the lowest forms of vegetative 
vitality to the highest type of animal life, this law 
is operative. Everywhere we see life spring out 
of death, and supported by death. ‘This does not 
come in conflict with the law of biogenesis, which 
proclaims that all life springs from preéxisting life; 
for there was life before there could be any death, 
and since death entered the domain of life God 
has wrought the mighty work of bringing life out 
of death. ‘‘ Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except 
a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it 
abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
fruit.”’ (John xii. 24.) This is the law of vege- 
table reproduction. The seed must decay in the 
soil. From this the minute germ of a new plant 
starts into life, and feeds on the death of the life- 
giving seed. ‘‘The corn of wheat’’ must perish 


THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 97 


to give birth to the new life. Thus are the mys- 
teries of life and death blended together in the 
vegetable kingdom. 

This law holds good in the sphere of animal life. 
Death comes before life under this law here, as in 
the vegetable kingdom; life is born of death. In 
incubation or in gestation, in the nest or in the 
matrix, the ovwm must perish, that the new life 
may come forth. Nor does life in the animal 
kingdom simply come from death, but it is contin- 
ually sustained by it. It is no doubt a discovery 
of this law that has led scientists to the idea of the 
** survival of the fittest,’’ as they have seen the 
strong devour the weak, and the life of one animal 
sustained by the death of another. The Christian 
doctrine of atonement finds illustration in the law 
of natural life; for both in the kingdom of nature 
and in the kingdom of heaven life is conditioned 
upon death, and the Christian doctrine of atone- 
ment is not only a dogma but a suggestion of the 
continuity of the law of God as it runs through all 
his vast empire. Ido not see much “ natural law 
in the spiritual world,’’ but I do see many signs of 
spiritual law in the natural world. Life is here 
conditional upon death, for this is the law of life, 
so faras man is concerned, in the spiritual sphere. 


Nearly nineteen centuries ago Christ came into 
vs 


98 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


the world and died. The fact has been planted 
in human history and in human hearts. What 
reproductive power this fact has developed! It 
showed its vitality in the lives of his disciples, and 
all with whom they came in contact felt its power. 
According to this law, spiritual life demands the 
death of the carnal nature of man. ‘‘For if we 
have been planted together in the likeness of his 
death, we shall be also in the likeness of his res- 
urrection: knowing this, that our old man is cru- 
cified with him, that the body of sin might be 
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 
For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we 
be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also 
live with him: knowing that Christ being raised 
from the dead dieth no more; death hath no 
more dominion over him.’ (Rom. vi. 5-9.) The 
spiritual birth and growth into the kingdom of 
God are by a process in conformity to the law of 
spiritual life. This law works with absolute cer- 
tainty when the soul is adjusted to its require- 
ments. ‘There is perfect rectitude in the entire 
process from beginning to end. 

This law is as natural in the spiritual sphere as 
the lew of incubation or gestation in tae physical 
sphere. Our science deals with these things with 
perfect faith; but because it cannot use the same 


THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 99 


apparatus, and proceed on the same lines of analy- 
sis and synthesis in the spiritual sphere, it looks 
upon everything relating to spiritual life as a mys- 
tery that the mind cannot grasp, and in which the 
soul cannot trust, and find comfort and peace. 
But the law of spiritual life may be as satisfac- 
torily understood as is the law of physical life. 
In all analysis there is a chasm that we cannot 
cross with a definition. No life can be satisfac- 
torily defined in terms of human language. The 
only true definition of life is living. This is true 
of all life. Yet we are assured of such an order- 
ly adjustment in nature that we speak with confi- 
dence of the laws of natural life and health, and 
we trust these laws with absolute faith, and we 
are never disappointed by them when we under- 
stand them. The law of spiritual life is appre- 
hended by faith. This law is no less real than 
physical law, because we comprehend it by a dif- 
ferent process. ‘‘ Faith is the substance of things 
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’’ 
(Heb. xi. 1.) There is a foundation underlying 
spiritual things as broad as the universe and as 
firm as God. To be safe we must build upon this 
foundation. No wind or wave can shake the 
structure erected upon this site, built in accord 
with the plan of the Architect. The visible uni- 


I00 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


verse will pass away, decay and death are written 
here; but the invisible and spiritual sphere abideth 
forever. ‘* For our light affliction, which is but for 
a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the 
things which are seen, but at the things which are 
not seen: for the things which are séen are tem- 
poral; but the things which are not seen are 
eternal.’’ (2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.) We are calledite 
look upon these invisible things; let us come rey- 
erently to this task and learn all we can about the 
law of that kingdom that abideth forever. Hu- 
man law does not excuse the transgressor on the 
ground of ignorance. Every act of disobedience 
meets a just recompense of reward. ‘‘ For if the 
word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every 
transgression and disobedience received a just 
recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if 
we neglect so great salvation; which at the first 
began to be spoken by the Lord, and was con- 
firmed unto us by them that heard him; God also 
bearing them witness, both with signs and won- 
ders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the 
Holy Ghost, according to his own will?’’ (Heb. 
ii. 2, 3.) If we do not acquaint ourselves with 
this law of life, of how much sorer punishment 
shall we be thought worthy than was inflicted 


THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Ior 


upon those who had less light than we have? Let 
us forever discard the notion that the law of life 
under the gospel dispensation is less exacting of 
its requirements than the law that governed Israel 
under the Mosaic dispensation, or less exacting 
than the moral law at any period in the govern- 
ment of moral beings throughout the universe. 
This law of spiritual life demands repentance and 
faith at all times, as the condition of salvation. 
We dare not approach God, unless the blood of 
propitiation is upon us. ‘There is a wrath more to 
be dreaded than the wrath of Sinai. A violation 
of the law of spiritual life, as revealed in the 
gospel, will bring horrors to the soul more to be 
dreaded than the thunders that muttered around 
the holy mount, or the lightnings that flashed in 
the faces of the Israelites when the law was given 
by Moses. Atthat time no one dared to approach 
the mount of God, and Moses did fear and 
quake. But St. John, in the Revelation, describes 
a scene more dreadful: ‘‘And the kings of the 
earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and 
the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every 
bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in 
the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and 
said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and 
hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the 


I02 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the 
great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be 
able to stand?’’ (Rev. vi. 15-17.) 

Penalty is necessary to law, and the more per- 
fect the law the greater the penalty for disobedi- 
ence. The law of spiritual life is a perfect law. 
It is perfectly adjusted to man’s condition. It 
comes down to him with all he needs to help him” 
up into the realm of spiritual life. ‘There can be 
no excuse for any man who fails to meet its re- 
quirements; and if he fails, he will meet the wrath 
of the Lamb. There is something terrific in the 
thought! The Lamb of God, the Friend of sin- 
ners, who never turned away a poor, helpless soul, 
comes on the throne of judgment with a wrath so 
great that every unsaved soul, from every condi- 
tion in life, would prefer annihilation rather than 
meet this wrath! 

No sinner will have anything to plead who has 
neglected to avail himself of the salvation offered 
in the gospel, when the penalty for neglecting this 
great salvation is exacted by the law of life. Out 
of Christ, God isa consuming fire. All that is nec- 
essary to meet the wrath of the Lamb, and suffer 
the penalty of the law of spiritual life, is to neglect 
the great salvation. In this state of probation it is 
offered to all on the same condition. ‘‘ This is a 


THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 103 


faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; 
of whom I am chief.’’ (2 Tim.i. 15.) The gos- 
pel is the law of spiritual life, and it is broad 
enough to cover the needs of the human race. It 
is called a perfect law, for there is nothing want- 
ing in its requirements or its adaptability to those 
it is intended to govern. ‘‘ But whoso looketh into 
the perfect law of liberty, and continueth there- 
in, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of 
the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”’ 


(James i. 25.) 


neg at 
} Ms 
ed fin 
a 


MA] 


am come that they might have life, and that they 
t have it more abundantly.” ( John x. IO.) NPS also! 
he (105) oh 


CHAPTER VIII. 
Tue UNITy OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


IFE is necessarily a unit. A thing cannot be 
both dead and alive at one and the same time, 

and yet there are degrees of life. Life and con- 
sciousness are not the same thing. The newborn 
babe has life, but consciousness is not developed 
in any such degree that life to it is a conscious 
reality. In the period of gestation there is life, but 
there is no knowledge of the fact. This is evi- 
dently the case with the beginning of life in the 
natural world, and there is an analogous condition, 
or state of being, in the beginning of spiritual life. 
The initial quickening of the soul, in the awaken- 
ing wrought by the Holy Spirit before pardon and 
regeneration, is the beginning of spiritual life; 
but there is no consciousness that apprehends the 
meaning of this spiritual life. The definition of 
life given by lexicographers, as has been before 
stated, is incomplete, because in its last analysis 
life is indefinable. It is said to be, with reference 
to spiritual life, ‘‘ the principle or state of con- 
scious spiritual existence: as the life of the soul.”’ 


If we limit spiritual life to a state of conscious 
(107) 


108 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


existence, and mean by this definition that there is 
no spiritual life until there is a conscious knowl- 
edge of pardon and regeneration, a large part of 
those who give evidences of the gracious influence 
of the Holy Spirit operating upon them must be 
classed among the spiritually dead. In this dis- 
cussion we prefer, as it appears to us to be the true 
position, to accept the quickening influences of 
the Holy Spirit in the awakened soul as the begin- 
ning of spiritual life. Life, as near as we can de- 
fine it in a spiritual sense, is that kind of spiritual 
existence which belongs to God, is manifested in 
Christ, and is imparted to mankind by the Holy 
Ghost. In the process of imparting this divine life 
to a fallen spirit, dead to God and spiritual exist- 
ence, there is a period that I cannot better define 
than to call it a period of spiritual gestation; an- 
swering to the period of life before the natural 
birth. The life has begun in the soul, but the 
spirit birth has not taken place to that extent and 
degree of life when consciousness of the fact is 
fullyembraced. Experience teaches that this phase 
of spiritual life frequently leads to a course of con- 
duct devoted to God and his service before there 
is satisfactory assurance of pardon. There is a 
degree of faith at this period of spiritual life, but it 
is not full and satisfactory. It leads, however, to 


THE UNITY OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 109 


a hungering and thirsting after righteousness and 
to the performance of the duties of religion. We 
call this initial spiritual life. This is the ‘‘ smoking 
flax our Lord will not quench,” and ‘‘ the bruised 
reed he will not break.’’ It is the beginning of 
the life of God in the soul of man. 

If the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit are 
not aborted, this life will develop into an experi- 
ence which will put the soul in possession of con- 
scious fellowship with God, and will lead into a 
blessed state of felicity here, which will be con- 
summated after death. It is a mistake to under- 
value these beginnings of spiritual life on the one 
hand, or to be satisfied with no higher degree of 
life on the other hand. It is unsafe to stop short 
of the full assurance of conscious salvation. God 
has promised the witness of his Spirit with our spirit 
to the fact of our sonship. The germ of spiritual 
life should be zealously guarded until we come into 
the full possession of the inheritance of the saints. 

Many serious souls have been troubled, because 
they did not believe that they were under gracious 
influences, while the Spirit of God was working 
mightily in them. ‘While emoticn in the spiritual . 
life should not be ignored, we should not be mis- 
led by our emotions. Penitents laboring under 
this mistake have fallen into a state of despair when 


IIo SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


the ebullitions of feeling which had accompanied 
the first gracious influences of the Spirit had sub- 
sided, and concluded that God had given them 
up because they could no longer feel acutely and 
weep over their sins. This initial spiritual life 
does not confine its manifestations to the emotional 
nature. It deals with the will and reasoning pow- 
ers as well. As long as there is a conscious de- 
sire to forsake sin and please God, it is evidence 
that the Spirit of God is still striving in the soul. 
That we may be able to realize the presence of 
this initial life within us, let us remember that all 
the good desires and good aspirations we have 
come from God. Man left to himself would never 
have a good impulse. All the thoughts and im- 
aginations of his heart will be evil, and only evil 
continually. If we realize this truth, we cannot 
doubt that whatever of good there is in us is of 
grace; and if God has given us these good desires 
and kindled in our hearts these aspirations after a 
better life, he can have but one purpose in them, 
and that is to lead us to himself. These experi- 
ences are the beginnings of spiritual life. They 
may be ever so feeble, but they mean salvation if 
they are carefully cherished and preserved by the 
use of every means in our power to follow them to 
their source. If we accept the fact of the fall of 


THE UNITY OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. IIt 


man, with all that it implies, we must admit that 
not only our good deeds are wrought in us by the 
gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, but all the 
gracious dispositions of soul we experience are his 
work. If there is any failure in the perfection of 
this life in any soul, this failure must be caused by 
that soul itself. St. Paul intimates this in his Epis- 
tle to the Philippians when he says: ‘‘I thank my 
God upon every remembrance of you, always in 
every prayer of mine for you all making request 
with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from 
the first day until now; being confident of this 
very thing, that he which hath begun a good work 
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: 
even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, 
because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as 
both in my bonds, and in the defense and con- 
firmation of the gospel, ye are all partakers of my 
grace.”” (Phil. i. 3-7.) 

The good work done is of grace, and the life 
begun in the soul is intended to be performed un- 
til the day of Jesus Christ. To the Galatians St. 
Paul says: ‘* My little children, of whom I travail 
in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I de- 
sire to be present with you now, and to change 
my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.’’ (Gal. 
iv. 19, 20.) There is no doubt that this life had 


Ii2 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


begun in these Galatians, whom St. Paul ad- 
dressed as ‘‘ my little children,’’ and for whom he 
‘*travailed in birth again’’; but there was dan- 
ger that this life should cease and spiritual death 
ensue. 

Let us take an illustration from the vegetable 
kingdom; and we are warranted in this, as our 
Lord himself gives the example. Take the little 
plant which is putting forth the tender germ. It 
is very imperfect and frail, and does not show 
what it will be. How unlike the full corn in the 
ear is the tender stalk just budding into life! 
And yet from the beginning of this vegetable life, 
until the mature corn is ripe, there is the same 
vegetable life; and if the stalk dies, it is impos- 
sible to bring it to life again. It may be nipped 
by the frost or wilt under the scorching heat of 
the sun; but if the life germ is not destroyed, it 
will revive when refreshed by genial showers, and. 
grow unto perfection. As long as the life of the 
plant is not destroyed it may grow. Every kind 
of life is a unit; and when the continuity is once 
broken, none but God himself can mend the link. 

Spiritual life has enemies within and without. 
It must grow up in the soul in harmony with the 
human will, which may choose life or death. It 
cannot develop in spite of this kingly power, 


THE UNITY OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Ii3 


which God himself will not dethrone. It must 
make its way as the carnal nature dies. It can 
only come up in the soul from this death. A 
Christian poet expresses the thought well in these 
lines: 


More of thy life, and more I have, 
As the old Adam dies; 
Bury me, Saviour, in thy grave, 


That I with thee may rise. 


The more life is the same in kind with the less 
life. It is all one life. In the imperfect state, the 
Christian life, like the life of a plant, is so imma- 
ture that it can hardly be recognized. The tender 
green blade does not look like the ripe corn in the 
ear. If we had no experience on the subject, who 
would believe that little germ would ever produce 
the full ripe corn? 

So is the beginning of spiritual life. So imper- 
fect and immature we behold it to-day running 
over with the exuberance of joy; to-morrow it is 
blackened by the frost of temptation or withered 
by the hot trials of persecution. But notwithstand- 
ing all this, if it is kept by the power of a conse- 
crated will, and nourished by the means of grace, 
it will grow on until it reaches a maturity that 
makes it meet for the garners in the sky. 


In treating of the periods of spiritual life the 
8 


Ii4 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


Scriptures use various terms, and the failure on 
the part of many to understand these terms has led 
to much erroneous teaching. There are three 
terms to which the careful attention of the serious 
readeris invited. ‘These are ‘‘ holiness,’ ‘** sancti- 
fication,’’ and ‘‘ perfection.”’ 

The first of these terms designates the state or 
character of being holy or sinless, a thing or per- 
son set apart to God’s use and service and cleansed 
of all pollution. This state belongs to all who 
are regenerated, for the blood of Christ cleanses 
all his children from the guilt and power of sin. 

‘* Sanctification ’’ is the second term, and signifies 
setting apart a person or thing for the service of 
God. This term is also applicable to every regen- 
erated soul. The term ‘‘ saint’’ is used with a com- 
mon application to all Christians, and means a sin- 
ner saved by grace. These terms do not convey 
the idea of growth and development in the spirit- 
ual life. 

‘«Perfection ’’ is a term of differentmeaning. It 
designates a finished state: ‘‘ The state of being 
perfect, as in material form, design, composition, 
construction, operation, action, qualification, etc. ; 
that degree of excellence which leaves nothing to 
be desired, or in which nothing requisite is want- 
ing; entire freedom from defect, blemish, weak- 


THE UNITY OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. II5 


ness, or liability to err or fail; supreme excellence, 
whether moral or material; completeness or thor- 
oughness, as perfection in an art, fruits in per- 
fection, the perfection of beauty.’’ This absolute 
spiritual perfection belongsto no spiritual being but 
God. Ina qualified sense it means a state of spir- 
itual being where the whole nature is permeated 
with love to God and his righteousness. As a 
state of love, it may be attained, but not in such 
degree that we cannot fail to love God with all the 
heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors 
as ourselves. To keep in this state of perfect love, 
it is necessary that we should continue to use the 
means of grace, and groan after still larger meas- 
ures of love. This perfection of Christian char- 
acter is the goal to which every child of God is 
exhorted to press. 

The highest standard of spiritual life to which 
we can attain here is given in this language: ‘‘ For 
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the 
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 
till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the 
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, 
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of 
Christ.’’ (Eph. iv. 12, 13.) This perfection is 
attained by growth, as is clearly stated in these 
words: ‘‘ But speaking the truth in love, may grow 


I16 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


up into him in all things, which is the head, even 
Christ.”’ (Eph. iv. 15:) 

It is the same spiritual life from the first quick- 
enings of the Holy Spirit until the perfection of 
Christian character is attained, even the stature of 
the perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of 
Christ. 

There is another figure, taken from the Old 
Testament Scriptures, which will help us to getan 
idea of this process of development in the divine 
life: ‘‘And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of 
silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and 
purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer 
unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” 
(Wal iit.)/3.)) 

The refiner of silver puts the silver ore into the 
crucible and watches the dross consume away un- 
til his own likeness becomes visible, and the refin- 
ing process goes on until that likeness is perfectly 
reflected as from the face of a polished mirror. 
The silver is the same metal through the entire 
process. At first it is mixed with baser metal and 
with earth, but the work of purification goes on 
until it is refined and comes forth pure silver. So 
this work of purification goes on in the spiritual 
life, until all the mixture and dross of sin and cor- 


ruption are purged away by the Refiner of the soul, 


THE UNITY OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. BET, 


and the spiritual life is made pure and reflects the 
perfect image of the Son of God. 

The unity need never be broken until the work 
of life is complete and the soul is created anew in 
righteousness and true holiness. 

There is a difficulty that suggests itself to the 
thoughtful mind with reference to the result of 
death before the spiritual life is fully developed. 
This difficulty is met by faith in the power and 
willingness of God to perfect the spiritual life and 
make every child of his meet for his kingdom and 
glory. While the development of spiritual life is 
by a process of growth, every regenerated soul is 
prepared at death for a home in heaven. While 
death is not in any sense the sanctifier of the soul, 
there is no reason to doubt that God can and does 
carry the work of spiritual life to such a state of 
perfection in even a babe in Christ, who dies in 
this state of spiritual infancy, as to fit and qualify 
it for an inhesttance among the saints in light. 
Here we are shut up to faith. Reason cannot 
fathom this peculiar problem. We cannot: tell 
what God does for the soul in the hour and article 
ot death. Jesus saved the thief on the cross, and 
took him as a trophy from his cross into paradise. 

There is no place for any soul who has been 
born of God, when he dies, but heaven. Neither 


118 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


will he leave the earnest penitent, who pleads for 
mercy and salvation to the last, to perish in de- 
spair. The poet sang good theology when his 
Muse was inspired to the strain: 


But if I die with mercy sought, 
When I the king have tried, 

This were to die (delightful thoaght!, 
As sinner never died. 


“But now being made free from sin,and become serv- 
ants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the 


end everlasting life.” (Rom. vt. 22.) 
(119) 


CHAPTER IX. 
THE FRuIT oF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


E need to see the fruit of spiritual life in our- 
selves, that we may have the witness of our 
own spirit, as well as the witness of the Spirit of 
God, to the fact that we have this life. These 
fruits are visible. Our Lord himself says: ‘* Ye 
shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather 
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so 
every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a 
corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.”’ (Matt. vii. 
16,17.) St. Paul also calls our attention to this 
fruit in ourselves: ‘‘ But now being made free 
from sin, and become servants to God, ye have 
your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting . 
life.” (Rom. vi. 22.) He also points out the 
fruit of the Spirit so plainly that we need not doubt 
as to whether we are bringing forth this fruit in 
our experience and life. ‘‘ But the fruit of the 
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- 
ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: 
against such there is no law.”’ (Gal. v. 22, 22.) 
There are no phenomena of nature with which 
we may become more familiar than we may with 


these fruits of spiritual life. 
(121) 


I22 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


Let us take them as they are classified as the 
fruit of the Spirit: Love is the first in order. 
We are not able to define this in a few simple 
terms, but we can make such an analysis of it 
that all will recognize it as belonging to the fruits 
of spiritual life. To make this analysis we will 
seek the help of St. Paul, who ran the beams of 
this spiritual light through the prism of his own 
inspired mind, and, having broken it up in its sey- 
eral parts, just as we run a sunbeam through a 
prism that we may see its various colors, he gives 
us the following analysis: ‘‘ Love suffereth long, 
and is kind.’? Wherever we find long-suffering 
and kindness blended together we should not be 
at a loss to know its origin. It is such a rare 
combination in this world that it only has to be 
encountered to be recognized. Kindness after 
long-suffering cannot fail to impress any un- 
damned or undoomed spirit of its heavenly origin. 
‘*Love envieth not.’’ It is perfectly natural to 
man in an unspiritural state to envy his fellow- 
man. Envy is active selfishness, it makes the 
subject of it unhappy, and yet he breathes it as he 
does the breath of life. He cannot bear the sight 
of his neighbor’s prosperity when it surpasses his 
own. It chafes like a caged hyena at another’s 
promotion, especially if that one is a rival for 


THE FRUIT OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 123 


worldly success, or worldly honors. Love de- 
stroys all this in the soul when the spiritual life 
dominates it. ‘*‘ Love vaunteth not itself, is not 
puffed up”’ (or rash). It produces in those who 
possess it such a sense of humility and unselfish- 
ness that they do not behave themselves ‘‘ un- 
seemly,’’ nor seek their own happiness, espe- 
cially at the expense of others. ‘‘Is not pro- 
voked’’; for when it is provoked or angered it is 
not love. ‘‘ Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth 
in the truth.’’ It will weep at either the sin or folly 
of an enemy, but never rejoices at any evil, takes 
no pleasure in hearing or repeating it, but desires 
it may be forgotten forever; but it rejoices in the 
truth because truth is its proper fruit and belongs 
to the sphere in which it lives. Everything false 
is opposed to love, and it cannot live in an atmos- 
phere of falsehood. ‘‘ Love beareth all things, 
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
things.’’ This is such a block of excellences that 
we can hardly take it in; and yet when the soul 
of the spiritual man is filled with this fruit of the 
Spirit of God, no other terms can express its pow- 
er. ‘* Love never faileth.’’ It accompanies to 
and adorns us in eternity; it prepares us for and 
constitutes heaven. Love is the essence of God’s 
moral character, and is shed abroad in the heart of 


124 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


the regenerated soul. It is the one thing needed 
to make humanity what God designed it should be. 
It is the only power that can govern a spirit. In 
the material sphere, matter is governed by force; 
spirits cannot be governed by the law of force. 
They may be punished by force, but punishment 
is not government. .The angels that ‘* kept not 
their first estate, but left their own habitation, he 
hath reserved in everlasting chains under dark- 
ness unto the judgment of the great day’’; these 
spiritual beings are not governed, they are pun- 
ished. Government in the spiritual sphere implies 
willing obedience on the part of the governed. 
In this world men who are incarcerated in prison 
and deprived of liberty are not governed. 

The whole plan of salvation is an effort on the 
part of Deity to impart to man this fruit of spirit- 
ual life. The creating of a material universe was 
nothing more than: pastime for God; it was the 
work of his fingers. But the work of redemption 
taxed the powers of the whole Godhead. We 
may easily imagine that the hour was great and 
illustrious when, from the dark and formless mass, 
this material universe trembled into birth; when 
the morning stars sang together and the firstborn 
sons of light shouted for joy. But far grander 
was the time when, through the incarnation of the 


THE FRUIT OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 125 


second Person in the Trinity and his sacrificial 
death upon the cross, the plan was consummated by 
which a world of deathless spirits, in revolt against 
Jehovah, were placed in an attitude for govern- 
ment, and a way opened by which they might re- 
ceive this first fruit of spiritual and eternal life. 

The whole revelation of God culminated in the 
great love with which ‘he so loved the world,’’ as 
to give ‘‘his only-begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life.’’ 

The Old Testament dispensation, with all its 
grand scenes of power and symbols of glory, was 
but a preparation for the expression of his love, 
by which the world might be brought into the spir- 
itual sphere, through the impartation of this love to 
the souls of men. 

Love is the one great need of our world. Nota 
sickly, sentimental, selfish emotion, too often mis- 
taken for love, but such love as that analyzed by St. 
Paul in the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, the 
analysis of which we have endeavored to place here. 

The next fruit of the Spirit, as the apostle pre- 
sents it, is joy. In his classification we think love 
is placed as the first fruit because it is the root of 
all others, as well as the sum of them all. It is 
certain they all spring from the spiritual birth, 


126 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


which cannot be better defined than in the follow- 
ing words: ‘*‘ And hope maketh not ashamed; be- 
cause the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts 
by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” 
(Rom. v. 5.) 

Joy is the first fruit of this love which is shed 
abroad in our hearts. As soon as we are born of 
the Spirit of God, joy is the result. Joy is defined 
to be: ‘‘An emotion of pleasure caused by the 
gratification of any passion or desire; ardent hap- 
piness arising from present or expected good; 
exultant satisfaction; exhilaration of spirits; glad- 
ness; delight.’? This general definition of joy is 
good, and when you add to it ‘‘in the Holy 
Ghost’’ you have Christian joy. 

This fruit of the Spirit differs from other joy in 
this: it does not depend upon circumstances and 
surroundings. It may exist, and has shown itself 
in spite of physical conditions. Paul and Silas 
were in the inner prison of the jail at Philippi, 
‘‘and at midnight they sang praises unto God.”’ 
There could have been no temporal circumstances 
to make them joyful. They had been cruelly 
beaten, and their feet were made fast in the 
stocks; and yet their hearts were full of joy. 
This is that joy which is a fruit of spiritual life. 
And this experience is peculiar to the Christian re- 


THE FRUIT OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 127 


ligion. Some philosophers have taught that pain 
is a lesser sort of pleasure, and they and their dis- 
ciples have affected to be indifferent to pain, but 
none of them have given any sign of positive joy in 
suffering. We have seen the Christian in poverty 
and pain rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of 
glory. This is that joy which is a fruit of the Spirit. 

There is no fruit of spiritual life that should be 
more carefully examined than joy, because every 
emotion of pleasure caused by the gratification of 
any passion or desire is not necessarily Christian 
joy. Men sometimes go wild with delight at the 
attainment of the object of their desires here in 
this world, when a moment’s thought will assure us 
that these joys are momentary, and depend upon 
the possession of things that are in themselves 
transient and soon lost. These joys perish with 
the using, as the things we rejoice in perish. 

Even our religious enjoyments may be deceptive. 
We may attend church to hear the eloquence of 
the preacher or to be charmed with the harmoni- 
ous strains of sweet music, when there is nothing 
of spiritual joy in our lives. We should be care- 
ful to distinguish purely esthetic pleasure from 
that joy which is the fruit of the Spirit. The one 
is transitory, and depends for its existence on our 
pleasant surroundings; the other is an abiding 


128 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


treasure of the soul, and will triumph over every 
loss and trial. When possessing it, we may be 
happy in health or in sickness, in wealth or in 
want. It is the divine secret that enables the 
Christian ‘* to know both how to be abased and to 
know how to abound.’’ In other words, to know 
how to be rich, and to know how to be poor; and 
that teaches us that, whatsoever state we are in, 
therewith to be content. Possessing this fruit of 
the Spirit, although the outward man may perish, 
the inward man is renewed day by day. 
It is this fruit of the Spirit of which the Christian 
poet sings in the following lines: 
Joy is a fruit that will not grow, 
In nature’s barren soil; 


All we can boast, till Christ we know, 


Is vanity and toil. 


But where the Lord has planted grace, 
And made his glories known, 

There fruits of heavenly joy and peace 
Are found—and there alone. 


A bleeding Saviour seen by faith, 
A sense of pard’ning love, 

A hope that triumphs over death, 
Give joys like those above. 


These are the joys which satisfy 
And sanctify the mind; 

Which make the Spirit mount on high, 
And leave the world behind. 


THE FRUIT OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. I29 


This is the joy of the Lord and is the Chris- 
tian’s strength. 

Peace is the next fruit set forth in this clas- 
sification. ‘This is the special blessing promised 
by our Lord before he left the world. ‘‘ Peace I 
leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as 
the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your 
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’’ (John 
xiv. 27.) The Christian’s peace is a growing 
fruit. It is the first thing consciously experienced 
when God forgives his sins. It enlarges in the 
soul like a river, and this figure is used to illus- 
trate it: ‘‘O that thou hadst hearkened to my 
commandments! then had thy peace been as a 
river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the 
sea.” (Isa. xlviii. 18.) This fruit of the Spirit 
cannot grow in the soul unless the commandments 
of God are kept. No child of God can enjoy it 
unless he is careful to study and faithful to keep 
all the commandments of God. There is nothing 
we can be more conscious of than the unrest of 
soul that follows any failure to obey God, and 
there is no clearer experience than the peace of 
Christ that dwells in every faithful heart. ; 

Long-suffering is the next fruit of the Spirit. 
We have noticed this fruit of the Spirit in the 


analysis of love. It is well for us to keep this pe- 
9 


130 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


culiar grace before our minds, for in it we see the 
mind of Christ. He exhibited a degree of long- 
suffering in his humiliation worthy of all imitation 
and reproduction by his disciples. 

Gentleness is the next fruit of the Spirit. There 
is a power in this Christian grace that we do 
not fully appreciate, and yet it is seen with de- 
light by those who have eyes to behold the fruits 
of spiritual life. Even the most hardened of \ 
earth’s unfortunate children are impressed by the | 
quiet, gentle spirit and demeanor of those who 
have the mind of Christ. ‘* Be gentle toward all 
men’’ is an apostolic injunction that will be ob- 
served by those who are partakers of the divine 
nature. By this grace the world is to be subdued 
and won to Christ; and through it the light of 
spiritual life is constantly falling upon the dark- 
ened souls of men. It shines in the prisons of 
Christendom, and says to the poor criminal, 
ruined and cursed by sin, that there is a gentle, 
kind Saviour whose heart of compassion may be 
touched by the most degraded wretch, who has 
nothing to commend him to the divine favor but 
wretchedness and shame. All the gentleness in- 
spired in the hearts of philanthropists is a fruit of 
the Spirit, and there is not a heart so hard or a 
soul so dead that it cannot feel the life-giving 


THE FRUIT OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. I3I 


power of gentleness. Where this fruit grows in 
the Christian home we have heaven in miniature. 
Let no one imagine himself a Christian until he 
learns to be gentle and kind, not only to those 
who please him, but to his enemies as well; for 
if we love them only who love us, what right have 
we to claim that we are the children of God? Do 
not even publicans and sinners this much? This 
is a fruit that will show itself in every one pos- 
sessing spiritual life. There is no exception to 
this rule. 

The next grace set forth as a fruit of the Spirit 
is goodness. This term indicates the state or 
quality of being good in any sense—excellence, 
purity, virtue, grace, benevolence. It is a com- 
prehensive term. The highest tribute of praise to 
any man is to say he is a good man. It is the 
sum of all the graces of the Spirit. The only ulti- 
mate good, or end in itself, must be goodness or 
excellence of conscious life. 

Faith comes next in order. This fruit of the 
Spirit is the beginning of the spiritual life. It 
is that power of the soul that realizes the exist- 
ence of invisible things. It is in this particular 
sense that it is here enumerated as the fruit of the 
Spirit. By faith we discover the spiritual sphere, 
and the more faith possessed by the soul the more 


132 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


real is the existence of all things that belong to 
the invisible world. There are degrees of faith. 
As a fruit of the Holy Spirit in the soul of man, it 
increases in proportion to the enlargement of the 
spiritual induement. As we rise higher and high- 
er on the table-lands of faith, we catch the inspira- 
tion of the poet who sang: 


Faith lends its realizing light, 

The clouds disperse, the shadows fly, 
Th’ Invisible appears in sight, 

And God is seen by mortal eye. 


No one full of the Spirit of God and producing 
these fruits ever doubts the truths of our holy re- 
ligion. ‘To him spiritual things are the realities of 
consciousness. He has in him the substance of 
things hoped for; the demonstration of things not 
seen. Faith is the only medium through which we 
can receive this knowledge. Reason cannot reveal 
spiritual things to the soul. It is by faith we real- 
ize the existence of the soul itself. 

The discoveries of faith are above the senses, 
but they are more real than the things of sense, in 
that they are eternal things. The senses them- 
selves fail, as well as the things they discover, but 
faith abides in the soul forever as a fruit of the 
Spirit. 


THE FRUIT OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 133 


We are sometimes taught that faith will end in 
sight and hope in fruition, but the Bible does not 
teach this. St. Paul says: ‘‘ Now abideth faith, 
hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these 
is love.’”’ But he says that they all abide. The 
objects of faith change. So do those of hope; 
but as long as eternity lasts there will be in the soul 
‘*the substance of things hoped for, the evidence 
of things not seen.”’ This, like all the fruits of 
the Spirit, is an abiding possession of spiritual life. 

Meekness is the next fruit in order given by 
St. Paul. This is so much like gentleness that it 
is hard to distinguish it from that fruit, and yet 
there is a difference of sufficient importance to 
give it a place of its own among the fruits of spir- 
itual life. The term expresses the idea of the 
quality of being meek, softness of temper, mild- 
ness; it involves gentleness, forbearance under 
injuries and provocations, unrepining submission. 
This term conveys the idea of lowliness and self- 
abasement. 

The last fruit given in this classification is 
temperance. This conveys the idea of modera- 
tion. ‘‘ Let your moderation be known unto all] 
men. The Lordisathand.’’ (Phil.iv.5.) This 
text conveys the idea of temperance as the fruit of 
the Spirit. It forbids extravagance in anything. 


134 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


Some otherwise good men have an intemperate 
zeal, and by this injure themselves and any cause 
they may espouse. Those who thus act do not 
show forth this fruit of the Spirit; and, wanting 
this, all of good in them is marred, if not en- 
tirely ruined. We frequently give too narrow a 
definition to temperance. As a Christian grace it 
occupies an important place. It conveys the idea 
of habitual moderation in regard to the indulgence 
of the natural appetites and passions; restrained 
or moderate indulgence, abstinence from all vio- 
lence or excess, from inordinate or unseasonable 
indulgence, or from the use or pursuit of any- 
thing injurious to moral or physical well-being; 
sobriety, frugality, as temperance in eating and 
drinking, temperance in the indulgence of joy or 
grief. This definition seems to cover what is 
meant by this fruit of the Spirit, and is necessary 
to spiritual life. No one can have all these fruits 
in himself and have any doubt of spiritual life, 
for this is that life. On the other hand, no one 
can be assured of spiritual life without these fruits 
in him. To have these fruits explains the doc- 
trine of assurance because it is assurance. 

We frequently mistake in our efforts to obtain a 
knowledge of God and heavenly things, and sup- 
pose all this knowledge may be obtained by a 


THE FRUIT OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 135 


mighty bound, forgetting that growth in these 
things is the law of spiritual life. We begin this 
life suddenly, for we are justified by faith, and 
immediately experience peace with God. But at 
that time our Lord says unto us: ‘‘ If ye continue 
in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and 
ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make 
you free.’’ (John viii. 31, 32.) 

It is the good pleasure of our Father to give us 
the kingdom. He puts it in the reach of all who will 
use the means to obtain it. We are grafted into 
Christ by faith, and as long as we abide in him we 
bring forth fruit. But if we abide not in him, we 
are cast forth as withered branches. He saith: 
‘*T am the true vine, and my Father is the hus- 
bandman. Every branch in me that beareth not 
fruit he taketh away: and every branch that bear- 
eth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth 
more fruit.”’ (John xv. f, 2.) 

The philosophy of this spiritual life we can no 
more understand than we can understand the 
mystery of natural life; but we can live it and 
enjoy all its privileges, and, as we have before 
stated, the only definition of this life that can be 
satisfactory is living it. This we may all do by 
the help of his grace. 


) 
\ Aa 
' 
\ L) y Af 
1 
. 
{ 
1 
5 
’ 
4 
’ 
; 
cy 
’ 
¢ 
ot 
. 
i 


“Therefore we are always confident, knowimg that, 
whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from 
the Lord: . we are confident, I say, and witling 


rather to be absent from the body, and to be present 
with the Lord.” (2 Cor. v. 6, 8.) 


(137) 


CHAPTER X. 


SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE DISEMBODIED STATE. 


HIS theme involves the state of the soul after 
dissolution. Is there any conscious existence 

in the disembodied state? For an answer to this 
question we must depend upon the revelation God 
has given in the Bible. There are presumptive 
arguments drawn from science and philosophy, 
but they are not conclusive. Our science and our 
philosophy cannot deal with things of a purely spir- 
itual character. Spiritual things are not unscien- 
tific or contrary to philosophy, but they are above 
them. They belong to a higher sphere, and must 
be dealt with according to the laws of spiritual 
life. Science may demonstrate spiritual things 
after these things have been revealed to the un- 
derstanding by a higher power. Reason must ac- 
cept the Bible as a revelation from God, for the 
following argument proves the divine inspiration 
of the Holy Scriptures. The Bible as a literary 
production must be the invention either of good 
men or angels, bad men or devils, or of God. It 
could not be the invention of good men or angels, 


for they neither would nor could make a book, 
(139) 


140 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


and tell lies all the time they were writing it, say- 
ing, ** Thus saith the Lord,’’ when it was their 
own invention. It could not be the invention of 
bad men or devils, for they would not make a 
book which commands all duty, forbids all sin, and 
condemns them to eternal punishment. There- 
fore we must conclude that the Bible is given by 
the inspiration of God. 

This much reason sees from the internal evi- 
dence of the Holy Scriptures, and when the evi- 
dence from the fulfilled prophecies, as well as 
the indisputable miracles, is considered there is 
no rational ground for doubt that the Bible is 
what it claims to be: the word of God. We 
have a perfect right and it is our duty to satisfy 
ourselves that the inspired Scriptures are such 
as they claim to be. But when it is established 
that God has spoken, his word should be the end 
of controversy. We must accept the plain teach- 
ings of Scripture on the subject under considera- 
tion, or we cannot consider the question at all, as 
we know nothing about it from any other source 
of knowledge. 

Let us reverently consult the Scriptures to as- 
certain what they teach us about the life of the 
soul in the disembodied state of being, between 
death and the resurrection. We should be grate- 


THE DISEMBODIED STATE. I4i 


ful for the full revelation given us on this subject. 
The first proof of the conscious state of existence 
to which we will turn is the case of the thief wno 
was crucified with Christ. ‘‘And one of the mat- 
efactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, 
If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the 
other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not 
thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same con- 
demnation? And we indeed justly; for we re- 
ceive the due reward of our deeds: but this man 
hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, 
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy 
kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say 
unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in para- 
dise.”” (Luke xxiii. 39-43.) 

Here we have the most remarkable tragedy 
presented to our minds that ever occurred in hu- 
man history. Three men are dying side by side 
in the most cruel manner imaginable. Two of 
these men are notorious lawbreakers; the oth- 
er, judged from any standard known to men, is 
the most perfect character the world ever saw. 
One of the malefactors, in a railing spirit, says 
to Jesus, ‘‘If thou be Christ, save thyself and 
us’’; the other, in the spirit of true penitence, 
rebukes his fellow-sufferer, and then appeals to 
the dying Jesus to be remembered by him in his 


142 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


kingdom. Such faith, at such an hour, is so 
striking that it can only be surpassed by the an- 
swer of the prayer it inspired: ‘‘ To-day shalt 
thou be with me in paradise.’’ What does this 
promise mean? We examine the original lan- 
guage to ascertain if possible just what it does 
mean, and we find that our translation, although it 
is clear enough and strong enough to inspire our 
hearts with hope for the dying petitioner, is not as 
strong as the language in which it was first spoken 
by the Saviour. The poor thief might have meant 
something like this: ‘‘I believe you are a king, 
and in spite of your present helpless condition will 
at some time have a kingdom. Remember me 
when you come into it.’” The answer was no 
doubt somewhat a surprise to the dying thief. 
‘‘ This very day,’’ not at some time in the distant 
future, «‘ thou shalt be with me in paradise.’’ The 
term ‘‘ paradise’’ means a place of delights, and no 
one can be in paradise without being in a state of 
conscious happiness. If the promise to the dying 
thief had any meaning, it meant that as soon as the 
soul was freed from the tortures of the cross it 
would be in a state of conscious blessedness. 
Efforts have been made by those who teach 
that there is no life or consciousness for the soul 
in the disembodied state to put a meaning in the 


THE DISEMBODIED STATE. 143 


promise of Jesus to the dying penitent that the 
language does not warrant. It has by a forced 
and strained intepretation been twisted into a 
promise to be fulfilled at some time in the future, 
but it is a pleasant reflection that no such inter- 
pretation has ever been given to these words by 
any one deeply learned in the meaning of the lan- 
guage in which Jesus spoke. It has always been 
the faith of the Christian Church that the dying 
thief and the Saviour were together in paradise on 
the day of the crucifixion. 

We cannot understand how the soul exists sep- 
arate from the body. But there is no objection to 
the fact because we cannot understand it. We 
do not understand how the soul exists in the body. 
How matter and spirit are united in man is no 
doubt a mystery to all created intelligence. We 
philosophize about this wonderful mystery, and 
form our theories; but after all, the basal fact of 
the whole matter is a matter of faith, We know 
only in part in our present state of being. Rea- 
son is constantly coming to chasms it cannot 
cross and meeting mysteries it cannot solve. The 
greatest perversion of reason and faith is to at- 
tempt to discard all matters of faith that we can- 
not harmonize with reason so as to see through 
them from the standpoint of reason. If our rea- 


t44 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


son could solve every difficulty, there would be no 
room for or need of faith. 

That the soul enters immediately at death into a 
state of conscious happiness or misery is taught in 
the Scriptures beyond doubt or cavil. The peni- 
tent thief went with Jesus into paradise on the day 
he died, and all who penitently believe in him do 
the same thing. This is proved by the follow- 
ing scripture: ‘* For we know that if our earthly 
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have 
a building of God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, 
earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our 
house which is from heaven: if so be that being 
clothed we shall not be found naked. For we 
that are in this tabernacle do groan, being bur- 
dened: not for that we would be unclothed, but 
clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed 
up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the 
selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto 
us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are 
always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at 
home in the body, we are absent from the Lord 
(for we walk by faith, not by sight): we are con- 
fident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from 
the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2 
Cor. v. 1-8.) 


THE DISEMBODIED STATE. 145 


There is no uncertain sound set forth in this 
scripture. It begins with a declaration of abso- 
lute knowledge on the subject that covers the 
ground. The ‘building of God,”’ the ‘‘ house not 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens,’’ what- 
ever that may be, is the home of the soul as soon 
as it is liberated from the body. Then the good 
are present with the Lord. While here in the 
body they are separated from him in a sense they 
are not after death. There they immediately be- 
hold the glorified Christ. 

There is an intermediate state for the soul be- 
tween death and the resurrection, but the place 
where it is is heaven. It is where Christ is in his 
glorious resurrection body. This is proved by the 
following Scripture assertions: ‘‘And it came to 
pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from 
them, and carried up into heaven.”’ (Luke xxiv. 
51.) ‘‘And while they looked steadfastly toward 
heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by 
them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men 
of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? 
this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into 
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have 
seen him go into heaven.”’ (Acts i. 10, II.) 

Stephen was permitted to look into heaven: 


‘But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up 
10 


146 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, 
and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” 
(Acts vii. 55.) There can be no doubt that Jesus 
ascended into heaven; and it is equally certain 
that the souls of Christians go where he is as soon 
as they die. ‘*And when he had opened the fifth 
seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that 
were slain for the word of God, and for the testi- 
mony which they held: and they cried with a 
loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and 
true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood 
on them that dwell on the earth?”’ (Rev. vi. 9, 
10.) This scripture is undoubtedly figurative, but 
it teaches the conscious life of the souls of the 
saints in the disembodied state. If these souls are 
not alive, this scripture is entirely misleading and 
does not teach anything. But the whole tenor of 
Scripture teaches the continued, conscious life of 
the soul; and why multiply texts to prove the truth 
of the doctrine? We answer: Because this pre- 
cious truth has been disputed by some who claim to 
believe the Scriptures; and the souls of some have 
been perverted into the belief that man dies like 
the beast, and that the human soul is not immortal. 
The experience of those who are born of the 
Spirit of God confirm the teachings of the Bible. 
There is kindled in all who experience this spirit- 


THE DISEMBODIED STATE. 147 


ual birth a hope that assures them of a continuous 
spiritual existence after death. ‘* They rejoice 
in hope of the glory of God.’’ They cannot tell 
why or from whence this assurance comes, only 
that it is a part of that heaven-born experience. 
They have in themselves the first fruits of this 
life, and it is a conscious reality. 

The life of any person is a fact, and every real 
life is a force. The force of spiritual life begun 
in an immortal soul, with all its experiences and 
hopes, cannot end in a world like this. This 
world is moved by personality. All the currents 
of history have flowed from persons. The central 
fact in human history is Christ. It cannot be that 
such a life as his, capable of such infinite repro- 
duction in those who believe in him, is destined to 
have its continuity broken for any period at all. 
Spiritual life is continuous from its very nature. 
The spiritual man realizes this from an experience 
as real as life itself. Natural death and dissolu- 
tion come into human life; but find life and im- 
mortality bidding defiance to death, and the force 
of individual life rising superior to death and lay- 
ing hold upon eternal life. ‘* Whosoever liveth 
and believeth in me shall never die,’’ is the Chris- 
tian’s insurance policy, and it is as true as heaven 
and as unfailing as God. 


148 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


There is another evidence of the conscious 
existence of the soul after death given in the trans- 
figuration of Christ. At that time Moses and Eli- 
jah appeared and talked with Jesus in the presence 
of Peter and James and John. Moses had been 
_ dead for nearly fifteen hundred years, and yet he 
appeared on the mount and was known by the dis- 
ciples. If only Elijah had appeared there, there 
might have been, from this instance alone, no 
proof of the immortality of those who die, as he 
was translated. But Moses died. We have the 
word of God for that. ‘‘ So Moses the servant of 
the Lord died there in the land of Moab, accord- 
ing to the word of the Lord.’’ (Deut. xxxiv. 5.) 
The Lord said: ‘‘ Moses my servant is dead.” 
(Josh. i. 2.) No man attended his funeral or 
knew where he was buried. But he died, and 
nearly fifteen hundred years afterwards appeared 
alive, and was known by the disciples of Christ. 

The transfiguration teaches the conscious exist- 
ence of one who died; and more, it teaches the rec- 
ognition of that one by those who never saw him 
upon earth before. This whole scene is designed 
to teach a great lesson of the spirit world. What 
is true of Moses and Elijah is true of all who have 
passed into the spirit realm, out of the body, if 
they departed in the favor of God. We shall 


THE DISEMBODIED STATE. 149 


know our friends and loved ones in heaven, and 
many saints we never knew here. But what of 
the souls of the wicked? Aretheyimmortal? To 
find an answer to this question, we must turn to 
the Bible. Here we find the proof as conclusive 
that the souls of the wicked have an existence 
after death as it is that the righteous do. To 
prove this, the narrative of the rich man and Laz- 
arus is given. I call this a narrative because it 
lacks the signs that accompany a parable. Our 
Lord said: ‘* There was a certain rich man, which 
was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared 
sumptuously every day: and there was a certain 
beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, 
full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the 
crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table.’’ 
(Luke xvi. 19-21.) Who would dare to say that 
there were no such men as these? ‘*And it came 
to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by 
the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man 
also died, and was buried; and in hell [that is, 
in the place of departed spirits, for the word 
hades, here translated ‘‘ hell,’’ means out of the 
body] he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, 
and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his 
bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abra- 


ham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, 


I50 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, 
and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in 
this flame.’? (Luke xvi. 22-24.) Here we are 
taught that the rich man was in a state of con- 
scious suffering. The strongest possible figures 
of speech are used to indicate the nature of that 
suffering; and if this scripture does not teach the 
conscious existence of the souls of the wicked 
after death, it teaches nothing and is entirely mis- 
leading. Even memory is there to gather up rec- 
ollections of a wasted life and the good things that 
are now lost forever. ‘‘ But Abraham said, Son, 
remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy 
good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: 
but now he is comforted, and thou art torment- 
ed.”” (Luke xvi. 25.) 

No amount of quibbling can destroy the teach- 
ings of this scripture. It is given to prove to all 
who believe the word of God that there is a con- 
scious existence for the souls of the good and the 
bad after death. The rich man and Lazarus rep- 
resent the two classes. They both lived and died, 
and our Lord raises the curtain and shows us 
what followed death. 

The nature of the happiness experienced by the 
good after death is realized by the experiences of 
those who have the earnest of the Spirit in this 


THE DISEMBODIED STATE. I51 


life. Here the children of God are able to glory 
in tribulations, and have the love of God shed 
abroad in their souls. In the disembodied state 
the soul is liberated from its tenement of clay, and 
beholds with undimmed eye the glory of God. 
The child of God is a pilgrim and a stranger in 
this world; he gets home when he steps out of the 
body into heaven. He is then freed from all anx- 
iety and pain, for at that hour he enters into glory. 

As the child of God gets near home some- 
times he has glimpses of the glorious state before 
he leaves this land of shadows. God gives him 
dying grace, and he longs to depart and be with 
Christ. Heaven and earth get very close togeth- 
er where the good man ends his earthly pilgrim- 
age. Whoever studied this question by the death- 
bed of the child of God, and was not impressed 
with the reality of spiritual things? If he did not 
feel he was standing in the vestibule of a mansion 
in heaven at that hour, his soul must be dead to 
all these higher spiritual things. It cannot be 
that these experiences end with the death of the 
body. 


“So when this corruptible shall have put on tncor- 
ruption, and this mortal shall have put on tmmortalt- 
ty, then shall be brought to pass the saying that ts 


written, Death ts swallowed up in victory.” (z Cor. 


Ve 54 
eg (153) 


4 / 


CHAP TERE XT: 
SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE RESURRECTION STATE. 


T is the purpose of God to keep matter and 
spirit united in man, and to do this he will raise 
up the bodies of all who sleep in the dust and give 
them life in another state of being. The resur- 
rection body will be adjusted to the life in that 
state. It is not given to man in this life to under- 
stand fully what he shall then be. As in other 
things touching spiritual life, so it is in this: we 
must walk by faith, and not by sight. The fact of 
the resurrection of the body is fully revealed both 
by the declarations of the Scriptures and the res- 
urrection of Christ and his appearance to his 
apostles by many infallible signs and manifesta- 
tions of himself. And yet there were many things 
about his resurrection body they could not under- 
stand. He came into their presence after his res- 
urrection, while they were in a room with the 
door shut. He showed them his body, and as- 
sured them that it was the same body that was 
nailed to the cross. But there was a power about 
this body that he did not exhibit before his death 


and resurrection. He would suddenly appear to 
(155) 


156 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


his disciples, and as suddenly vanish out of sight. 
He assured them of the reality of his body being 
composed of flesh and bones, and yet by his ac- 
tions he showed them that he was not subject to 
the laws that govern material bodies. He is the 
first fruits of them that sleep, and we are assured 
that we shall be like him. ‘‘ Beloved, now are 
we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear 
what we shall be: but we know that, when he 
shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall 
see him as he is.”’ (1 John iii. 2.) 

In the resurrection state all the children of God 
will be like Christ in their resurrection bodies, as 
well as in the spiritual likeness they will bear to 
him. ‘‘ There is a natural body, and there is a 
spiritual body.’’ We shall have this spiritual body 
in the resurrection state, and in it we shall for- 
ever dwell in the home our Father will provide for 
us. This is not speculation, but a blessed fact 
of revelation. Our science and our philosophy 
cannot comprehend it, but it is not opposed to 
science or philosophy; it is just above them while 
we are in this state of being. 

The enjoyments of life in the resurrection state 
will be a continuation and a perfection of spiritual 
joy begun in this life. Here we have a foretaste 
of that blessedness into which we shall then enter 


THE RESURRECTION STATE. 157 


fully. Here we know in part, by faith; there we 
shall know even as we are known. Here we see 
through a glass darkly; there we shall see face to 
face. Our bodies here are a clog to our spirits. 
As the temporary home of our souls, they are a 
sort of prison house. ‘These bodies are fitly called 
**tabernacles’’ by St. Paul. This word meansa 
tent, and a tent is a transient dwelling place. It 
is also a frail dwelling. So are our bodies in this 
state of being. They are undergoing a change 
ali the time. By a molecular process that is con- 
stantly going on in our bodies, we are changing 
our material part ail the time. Here our bodies 
are subject to disease, decay, and death. No one 
can study the mechanism of the human body, and 
not be impressed with wonder that such a compli- 
cated and delicate machine should last so long. 
Physical life depends upon so many contingencies 
that we do not wonder that the psalmist should 
exclaim: ‘‘I will praise thee; for I am fearfully 
and wonderfully made.’’ (Ps. cxxxix. 14.) 

In the resurrection state the body is immortal. 
It will not be subject to disease or decay. No 
pain will ever afflict us there. We have reason to 
believe that every one will appear in the maturity 
of life. We do not believe that there will be any 
saints of God in the resurrection state in bodies 


158 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


that will appear old. There the aged will put on 
immortal youth, and those who died in infancy will 
come forth with mature bodies. This is not mere 
speculation. Our Lord is the type. He died and 
rose again in the zenith of his manhood. Every 
wrinkle will be smoothed on the brow of age in 
the resurrection state. The gray of our hair will 
all be left in the tomb. The angelic visitors that 
have appeared on earth were all young men. 
When Moses and Elijah appeared on the mount 
of transfiguration there is no doubt that it might 
have been said of them as it was said of Moses 
when he was one hundred and twenty years old 
(when he died): ‘‘ His eye was not dim, nor his 
natural force abated.”’ (Deut. xxxiv. 7.) 

We all shrink from the decrepitude of old age 
in this life. It is an affliction from which we shall 
be free in the resurrection state. Weariness and 
languor will be unknown in that blessed life. Pain 
and suffering belong to this period of human ex- 
istence; but if we obtain the resurrection of the 
just, we shall part company with these ills forever. 

Man never reaches the perfection of being until 
after the resurrection of the body. As we have 
shown in a preceding chapter, the good man goes 
into a state of blessedness at death, and he is with 
the Lord in heaven, yet he does not reach the 


THE RESURRECTION STATE. I59 


goal set before him until after the resurrection of 
the body. His soul was made to inhabit a mate- 
rial, glorified body forever, and he does not enter 
into the highest enjoyment prepared for him until 
he awakes in the full likeness of his Lord. Then, 
and not until then, will he be fully satisfied. 

This state is called the glorified state. We can 
form but an imperfect idea of such a life, its em- 
ployments and its pleasures, but there is enough 
revealed of it to fill the heart of the child of God 
with a hope full of joy and blessed anticipations. 

In that period of human existence man reaches 
his final home. The child of God gets his man- 
sion which Christ has gone to prepare. Here, I 
am persuaded, we shall find that our eternal home 
will possess all we enjoy in this life, and I think 
we shall be surprised to find that there will be so 
much there we learned to love and appreciate 
here. Our fleshly appetites and passions will be 
eliminated, but all the purely intellectual pleasures 
and spiritual joys of this life will be ours forever. 
We shall possess all the necessary powers of sense 
to enable us to enjoy the grandeur and beauty of 
the celestial city. The resurrection of the body is 
a grand fact of revelation that means much to 
man. The ties that bind us to our friends here, 
and which are broken at death in such a way as 


160 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


to leave us filled with a grief with which we do 
not wish to part, will be mended completely then. 
The rewards of faithful service in this state of 
trial will be fully given there; and we shall find 
all the promises of our Father true, and none of 
the good things spoken of in his word lacking. 
There, like the Israelites when they had reached 
the promised land, we shall recount the promises 
of God and exclaim: ‘‘ There failed not aught of 
any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto 
the house of Israel; all came to pass.’’ (Josh. 
Xx1. 45.) 

Our hope of a resurrection from the dead and 
an eternal existence after this resurrection is built 
on the promises of God. Heaven and earth as 
they now exist will pass away, but none of his 
promises will ever fail. Standing on these prom- 
ises by the graves of our loved ones, we may sing: 

O blessed dead who in thee sleep, 
While o’er their moldering dust we weep; 


O faithful Saviour, who shall come, 
That dust to ransom from the tomb. 


The dealing of God with the descendants of 
Abraham was a type of his dealings with his 
Church through all the ages. His promise to lit- 
eral Israel was long in fulfilling, but Canaan was 
reached and every promise fulfilled at last. So 


THE RESURRECTION STATE. I61I 


will it be with us. Our Canaan will be reached 
when our bodies are raised from the dead and 
we get home to our mansions in the skies. The 
home idea is wrought into the warp and woof of 
our being. We feel instinctively that our souls 
must have bodies and our bodies must have 
homes. While we may be happy in the disem- 
bodied state, there will, no doubt, be a conscious- 
ness of greater happiness when our bodies are 
raised and we are again complete—fulfilling the 
great idea of God expressed in our creation. We 
cannot attain unto the full likeness of our Head 
until, like him, we attain unto the resurrection of 
the just. In the world of spirits we shall wait for 
the redemption of our bodies. Death loses its 
sting when we are saved from all sin and God 
gives us dying grace, and the grave loses its vic- 
tory when our bodies are raised and _ glorified. 
Then we shall get to our own home and enjoy all 
its pleasures. 
Look at that young man (or young woman) 
who leaves home to spend a year at college. For 
a time he is homesick, but, knowing it is best 
for him to stay away and prepare for the duties 
of life, he denies himself the luxuries of home, 
and spends the time in exacting duties and hard 


mental labor. By and by the time comes to re- 
11 


162 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


turn; every one is looking for the loved one back 
home. Mother, father, brothers, and sisters are 
doing what they can to make the home-coming 
of the loved one happy. The day arrives, and the 
heart of the young student beats quickly at the 
thought of seeing them, and of getting home again. 
The journey is made, the happy greeting is over, 
and the young man goes to his room and sees that 
it has been fitted up with loving care for his re- 
ception. There are tokens of affection every- 
where. The beautiful room is more lovely than 
ever, and the grateful heart of the student feels, 
**This is my home. This beautiful room has been 
fitted up for me’’; and there is a thrill of joy and 
an appreciation of home never felt before. 

Our Lord has gone to prepare a place for every 
one who loves him. They will all have a mansion 
all their own. What joy must thrill the heart of 
the child of God when he enters into this inherit- 
ance! At home! forever at home! This will 
constitute a large part of the joy of spiritual life in 
the resurrection state. To this we may add the 
family reunions that will take place there. Loved 
ones who have been separated by death will meet 
in their eternal home and know that the union will 
be forever. But above all this, the joy of seeing 
Him who loved us and redeemed us from death 


THE RESURRECTION STATE. 163 


and the grave will constitute a source of joy inde- 
scribable and full of glory. The Church is called 
the Bride of Christ. At the resurrection he will 
take his Bride home to his Father’s house. Many 
scenes in this life faintly foreshadow this home- 
coming. Let us look at a scene that has been 
presented on earth. There stands a mansion, the 
home of elegance and opulence. It is a massive © 
structure, and combines elegance and airiness with 
massiveness in wonderful perfection of design, 
Corinthian columns of pure marble resting on 
bases of solid and beautiful scroll work. All that 
art and taste can do is done to make this home at- 
tractive and inviting. Both within and without 
this mansion is a thing of beauty. A son goes out 
from this home and selects a bride, and the day 
is appointed when he brings her home. Great 
preparations have been made for the happy occa- 
sion. The day arrives, and the beautiful bride 
comes to the home of the man she loves and who 
loves her with all his heart. It is a day of joy in 
that household. But this is indeed a faint pic- 
ture of the home-coming of the Bride of Christ. 
Heaven is immeasurably more beautiful than any 
earthly mansion that ever has been or ever will be 
erected by the skill of man; and the happiness of 
the bride who leans upon her husband’s arm, a 


164 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


picture of ecstasy in repose, but faintly outlines 
the picture of the happiness of the redeemed, the 
Bride of Christ, raised from the grave and clothed 
in white, taken by him to the mansion in the skies. 
In the resurrection state we shall reach the per- 
fection of intellectual joy. Here we see through 
a glass darkly. There are so many problems that 
we cannot solve, so many things that it would be 
such a pleasure to know, but we cannot know 
them. There we shall know as we are known. 
No distressing doubts will ever cast their shadows 
over us in that state of eternal light. ‘There we 
shall attain unto the perfection of being contem- 
plated in the purpose of God when he made man 
in his own image. ‘‘As for me, I will behold thy 
face in righteousness: I shall be satisned, when I 
awake, with thy likeness.’’ (Ps. xvii. 15.) 


“For the Lord himself stail descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and 
with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall 
rise first: then we which are alive and remain shali 
be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet 
the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the 
Lora,” (& Thess. iv. 16, 17.) 


CHAPTER XII. 


THe MILLENNIUM AND SECOND COMING OF 
CHRIST. 


HIS subject is one of great moment because 

there is so much in it that concerns the high- 
est interest of our race. Theologians have been 
disposed to pass it by as not of practicai impor- 
tance to the salvation of men or the progress of 
the kingdom of God, but a caretul study of the 
question impresses me that it is a matter of the 
first importance to have right views on the sub- 
ject. The doctrine of the Millenarians is founded 
on an ancient tradition in the Church, which is 
grounded on some doubtful texts in the book of 
Revelation and other scriptures, believed by them 
to teach that our Saviour shall reign a thousand 
years with the faithful upon the earth after the 
resurrection of the just, before the full completion 
of final happiness; and their name, taken from the 
Latin word mzZle, ‘‘a thousand,’’ has a direct al- 
lusion to the duration of this spiritual empire, 
which is styled the millennium. The doctrine is 
older than the Christian dispensation, and origi- 


nated among the Jews. The tradition fixed the 
(167) 


168 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


duration of the world, in its present imperfect 
state, to six thousand years, and announces a Sab- 
bath of one thousand years to begin about the 
close of the sixth millennium after the creation. 
This is to be a thousand years of universal peace 
and plenty, during which time Christ will reign in 
person on the earth with his saints. 

This doctrine was first promulgated by a rab- 
binical writer among the Jews by the name of 
Elias who flourished about two centuries before 
the birth of Christ. This belief obtained among 
the Chaldeans from the earliest times; and it is 
countenanced by Barnabas, Irenzus, and other 
primitive writers, and also by many of the Jews at 
the present day; for they deny that the Messiah 
has come, and look for him to come and restore 
the kingdom to Israel, and set up his reign upon 
earth. While this theory has much plausibility, 
and has never failed to awaken interest among 
men, it has not the sanction of Scripture, and is 
accompanied by a sensual conception of the king- 
dom of God which frequently leads into very 
damaging error in belief and practice. 

Justin Martyr, the most ancient of the fathers, 
was a great supporter of the doctrine of the mil- 
lennium, or that our Saviour shall reign with the 
faithful upon earth, after the resurrection, a thou- 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 169 


sand years; which he declares was the belief of 
all orthodox Christians. But this opinion is not 
generally followed; for though there has been, 
perhaps, no age of the Church in which this doc- 
trine was not admitted by one or more divines of 
the first eminence, it yet appears from the writings 
of Eusebius, Irenzus, and others among the an- 
cients, as well as from the histories of Dupin, Mos- 
heim, and other moderns, that it was never adopt- 
ed by the whole Church, nor formed an article 
in the established creed in any nation. Origen, 
the most learned of the fathers, and Dionysius, 
bishop of Alexandria (usually, for his immense 
erudition, surnamed the Great), both opposed the 
doctrine that prevailed on the subject in their 
day; and Dr. Whitby, in his learned treatise on 
the subject, proves, first, that the millennium was 
never generally received in the Church of Christ; 
and secondly, that there is no just ground to think 
that it was derived from the apostles. 

On the other hand, Dr. T. Burnett and others 
maintain that it was very generally admitted till 
the Nicene Council, in A.D. 325, or till the fourth 
century. The Doctor supposes Dionysius, of Alex- 
dria, who wrote against Nepos, an Egyptian bish- 
op, before the middle of the third century, to have 
been the first to attack this doctrine; but Origen 


170 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


had previously assailed it in many of his fictitious 
additions. ‘The truth seems to be that a spiritual 
reign of Christ was believed by all who carefully 
examined the Scriptures, though the popular no- 
tions of the millennium were often rejected; and 
ancient as well as modern writers assailed the ex- 
travagant superstructure, not the scriptural foun- 
dation of the doctrine. In the time of Cromwell 
there arose a set of enthusiasts in England, called 
‘*Millenarians,’’ but more frequently ‘‘ Fifth 


? 


Monarchy Men,”’ who expected the sudden ap- 
pearance of Christ, to establish on earth a new 
monarchy or kingdom. In consequence of this, 
some of them aimed at the subversion of all 
human government. In ancient history we read 
of four great monarchies (Assyrian, Persian, 
Grecian, and Roman); and these men, believing 
that this new spiritual kingdom of Christ was to 
be the fifth, obtained the name by which they 
were called. They claimed to be the saints of 
God, and to have the dominion of saints, in fulfill- 
ment of this promise from the seventh chapter and 
twenty-seventh verse of Daniel: ‘‘And the king- 
dom and dominion, and the greatness of the king- 
dom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the 
people of the saints of the Most High, whose king- 
dom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. oy (at 


shall serve and obey him.”? They expected, when 
Christ should come into this kingdom to begin his 
reign on earth, that they, as his deputies, were to 
govern all things under him. 

The opinions of modern thinkers on this sub- 
ject may be reduced to two: 1. Some believe that 
Christ will reign personally on the earth, and that 
the prophecies of the millennium point to a resur- 
rection of martyrs and other just men to reign 
with him a thousand years in a visible kingdom. 
2. Others are inclined to believe that by the reign 
of Christ and the saints for a thousand years on 
earth nothing more is meant than that before the 
general judgment the Jews shall be converted, 
genuine Christianity diffused through all nations, 
and mankind enjoy that peace and happiness 
which the faith and precepts of the gospel are 
calculated to confer on all by whom they are 
sincerely embraced. The state of the Christian 
Church, say they, will be, for a thousand years 
before the general judgment, so pure and so wide- 
ly extended, that, when compared with the state 
of the world in the ages preceding, it may, in the 
language of Scripture, be called a resurrection 
from the dead. In support of this interpretation 
they quote two passages from St. Paul, in which a 


conversion from paganism to Christianity, and a 


172 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


reformation of life is called a resurrection from 
the dead. ‘‘ Neither yield ye your members as 
instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield 
yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from 
the dead, and your members as instruments of 
righteousness unto God.”? (Rom. vi. 13.) Again: 
‘‘ Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, 
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee 
light.”” (Eph. v. 14.) There is indeed an order 
in the resurrection, but we nowhere observe men- 
tion made of a first and second resurrection at the 
distance of a thousand years from each other. In 
1 Corinthians xv. 24, 25 we read: ‘* Then cometh 
the end, when he shall have delivered up the king- 
dom to God, even the Father; when he shall have 
put down all rule and all authority and power. 
For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies un- 
der his feet.’’ If the Millenarian hypothesis were 
well founded, the words would no doubt have run 
thus: ‘*Christ, the first fruits, then the martyrs 
and saints at his coming, and a thousand years 
afterwards the residue of mankind—then cometh 
the end,”’’ etc. 

Bishop Newton, a strong advocate of the Mil- 
lenarian doctrine, says: ‘‘ When these great events 
shall come to pass—of which we collect from the 
prophecies this to be the proper order: the Protes- 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 173 


tant witnesses shall be greatly exalted, and the 
twelve hundred and sixty years of their prophesy- 
ing in sackcloth, and of the tyranny of the beast 
shall end together; the conversion and restoration 
of the Jews succeed, then follows the ruin of the 
Ottoman empire, and then the total destruction of 
Rome and of antichrist—when these great events, 
I say, shall come to pass, then shall the kingdom 
of Christ commence, or the reign of saints upon 
earth. So Daniel expressly informs us that the 
kingdom of Christ and the saints will be raised 
upon the ruin of antichrist. It is, I conceive, to 
these great events (the fall of antichrist, the re- 
establishment of the Jews, and the beginning of 
the glorious millennium) that the three different 
dates in Daniel (of twelve hundred and sixty days, 
and twelve hundred and ninety days, and thirteen 
hundred and thirty-five days) are to be referred. 
And as Daniel saith, ‘Blessed is he that waiteth, 
and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five 
and thirty days’ (Dan. xii. 12); so St. John saith, 
‘Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
resurrection.” Blessed and happy indeed will be 
this period; and it is very observable that the mar- 
tyrs and confessors of Jesus, in papist as well as in 
pagan times, will be raised to partake of this felic- 
ity. Then shall all those gracious promises in the 


il 74. SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


Old Testament be fulfilled, of the amplitude and 
extent of the peace and prosperity, of the glory 
and happiness, of the Church in the latter days. 
Then in the full sense of the words, shall the 
kingdoms of this world ‘become the kingdoms of 
our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign 
forever and ever.’ .(Rev. xi. 15.)’’ 

According to tradition, these thousand years of 
the reign of Christ and the saints will be the sev- 
enth millenary of the world; for as God created 
the world in six days and rested on the seventh, 
so the world, it is argued, will continue six thou- 
sand years, and the seventh thousand will be the 
great sabbatism, or holy rest of the people of God. 
‘‘Qne day is with the Lord as a thousand years, 
and a thousand years as one day.”’ (2 Pet. iii. 
8.) According to tradition, these thousand years 
of the reign of Christ and the saints are the great 
day of judgment of antichrist, and the first resur- 
rection; and in the evening or conclusion thereof 
shall be the general resurrection of the dead, small 
and great, ‘‘and they shall be judged every man 
according to his works.”’ 

Such is the representation of one of the strong- 
est advocates of the millennium and of those who 
believe in Christ’s reigning personally on earth 
during the period of one thousand years. In spite 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 175 


of this plausible theory, advocated by men of un- 
questioned piety and great ability, this doctrine has 
never been accepted by the Christian Church, and 
many of the greatest thinkers have ever opposed 
it as too sensual to be accepted and at variance with 
the true understanding of the kingdom of God. 
The following observations from Jones’s **‘Cyclope- 
dia’’ contain a sober and logical discussion of the 
subject that covers the ground remarkably well: 

<¢ Some have supposed that the passage ( Rev. xx. 
4) is to be taken literally, importing that at that 
time Jesus Christ will come in his human nature 
from heaven to earth and set his kingdom up here, 
reigning visibly and personally, with distinguished 
glory.on earth; that the bodies of the martyrs and 
other eminent Christians will then be raised from 
the dead, in which they shall live and reign with 
Christ here on earth a thousand years. And this, 
they suppose, is meant by the first resurrection. 
Those who agree in general in this notion of the 
millennium differ with respect to many circum- 
stances, which it is needless to mention here. 
Others have understood this paragraph of Scrip- 
ture in a figurative sense: that by this reign of 
Christ on earth is not meant his coming from 
heaven to earth in his human visible nature, but 
his taking to himself his power and utterly over- 


176 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


throwing the kingdom of Satan, and setting up his 
own kingdom throughout the world, which, before 
this, had been confined to very narrow bounds; 
subduing all hearts to a willing subjection, and thus 
reigning generally over the men who shall then be 
in the world and live in that thousand years. 
And by the ‘souls of them that were beheaded 
for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, 
and which had not worshiped the beast, neither 
his image, neither had received his mark upon 
their foreheads, or in their hands,’ living again 
and reigning with Christ a thousand years, they 
suppose is not meant a literal resurrection of their 
bodies, or their being raised to life; but that they 
shall live again, and reign with Christ in the re- 
vival, prosperity, reign, and triumph of that cause 
and interest in which they lived, and for the pro- 
motion of which they died; and in whose death 
the cause seemed to languish and become extinct. 
Thus they shall live again in their successors, who 
shall live, arise, and stand up with the same spirit 
and in the same cause in which they lived and 
died, agreeable to ancient prophecies. ‘The 
meek shall inherit the earth.’ ‘And the king- 
dom and dominion, and the greatness of the king- 
dom under the whole heaven, shall be given to 
the people of the saints of the Most High; whose 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 177 


kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all do- 
minions shall serve and obey him.’ And they sup- 
pose that this revival of the cause of Christ, which 
had been, in a great degree, dead and lost, rep- 
resents a resurrection of the souls of men by the 
renovation of the Holy Ghost. That this impor- 
tant passage of Scripture is to be understood in 
the figurative sense last mentioned is probable, 
and the following considerations are thought suffi- 
cient to support it: 

**z. Most, if not all, the prophecies in this book 
are delivered in figurative language, referring to 
types and events recorded in the Old Testament, 
and in imitation of the language of the ancient 
prophets. And this was proper, and even neces- 
sary, in the best manner to answer the ends of 
prophecy, as might easily be shown were it nec- 
essary. The first part of this passage, all must 
allow, is figurative. Satan cannot be bound with 
a literal, material chain. The key, the great 
chain, and the soul cannot be understood literally. 
The whole is a figure, and can mean no more than 
that when the time of the millennium arrives, or 
rather previous to it, Jesus Christ will lay effec- 
tual restraints on Satan, so that his powerful and 
prevailing influence, by which he had before de- 


ceived and destroyed a great part of mankind, 
12 


178 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


shall be wholly taken from him for a thousand 
years. And it is most natural to understand the 
other part of the description of this remarkable 
event to be represented in the same figurative lan- 
guage, as the whole is a representation of one 
scene; especially since no reason can be given 
why it should not be so understood. 

‘©2. To suppose that Christ shall come in his 
human nature to this earth, and live here in 
his whole person visible a thousand years before 
the day of judgment, appears to be contrary to 
several passages of Scripture. The coming of 
Christ, and his appearing at the day of judgment 
in his human nature, is said to be his second ap- 
pearance, answering to his first appearance, in his 
human nature on earth, from his birth to his ascen- 
sion into heaven, which was past. ‘And as it is 
appointed unto men once to die, but after this the 
judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the 
sins of many; and unto them that look for him 
shall he appear the second time without sin unto 
salvation.’ (Heb. ix. 27, 28.) ‘The appearance 
here spoken of is the appearance of Christ at the 
day of judgment. The coming of Christ does 
not always intend his coming visibly in his human 
nature; but he is said to come when he destroyed 
the temple and nation of the Jews and appeared 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 179 


in favor of his Church. So his destruction of 
heathen Rome, and delivering his Church from 
that persecuting power, was an instance of his 
coming. And he will, in the same way, come to 
destroy antichrist and the kingdom of Satan in 
the world, and introduce the millennium; and in 
these instances and others he may be said to ap- 
pear. But his coming to judgment and appearing 
to complete the final destruction of his enemies 
and to perfect the salvation of his Church are his 
last coming and appearance. But if he were here 
on earth, visible in human nature, and reigning in 
his glorified body during the millennium, he would 
be already here to attend the last judgment, and 
he could not be properly said to come from heavy- 
en, because this was done a thousand years be- 
fore. Besides, that Christ should come from heav- 
en and appear and reign in his human nature and 
presence before the day of judgment, seems to be 
contrary to the following scriptures: ‘For the 
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with 
the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall 
rise first.” (1 Thess. iv. 16.) ‘And to you who 
are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall 
be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 
in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that 


180 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


know not God, and that obey not the gospel of 
‘our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished 
with everlasting destruction from the presence of 
the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when 
he shall come to be glorified in his saints.’ (2 
Thess. i. 7-10.) This is evidently his appear- 
ing the second time, for the salvation of all them > 
that look for him; but were he on earth before 
this, in human nature, during the time of the mil- 
lennium, how could he be said to be revealed 
to descend and come from heaven to judge the 
world? 

** 3. There is nothing expressly said of the resur- 
rection of the body in this passage. (Rev. xx. 4.) 
The apostle John saw the souls of them which 
were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, etc., and 
they lived and reigned with Christ. The resur- 
rection of the body is nowhere expressed in 
Scripture by the souls living. And as there is 
nothing said of the body, and he only saw their 
souls to live, this does not appear to be a proper 
expression to denote the resurrection of the body, 
and their living inthat. As this, therefore, does not 
seem to be the natural meaning of the words, and 
certainly is not the necessary meaning, we are war- 
ranted to look for another meaning and to acqui- 
esce in it, if one can be found which is more easy 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 181 


and natural and more agreeable to the whole pas- 
sage and to the Scripture in general. Therefore, 

‘‘4. The most easy and probable meaning is, 
that the souls of the martyrs and all the faithful 
followers of Christ who have lived in the world 
and have died before the millennium shall com- 
mence shall revive and live again in their suc- 
cessors, who shall rise up in the same spirit and 
in the same character in which they lived and 
died; and be in the revival and flourishing of 
that cause which they espoused and spent their 
lives in promoting. This is therefore a spiritual 
resurrection denoting that all Christ’s people shall 
appear in the spirit and power of those martyrs 
and holy men who had before lived in the world, 
and who shall live again in these their successors, 
and in the revival of their cause or in the resur- 
rection of the Church, from the very low state in 
which it had been before the millennium, to a state 
of great prosperity and glory. This is agreeable 
to the way of representing things in Scripture in 
other instances. John the Baptist was Elijah, be- 
cause he rose in the spirit of Elijah, and promoted 
the same cause in which Elijah lived and died; 
and Elijah revived and lived in John the Baptist, 
because he went before Christ in the spirit and 
power of Elijah: ‘And he shall go before him in 


182 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts 
of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient 
to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people 
prepared for the Lord.’’ (Luke i.17.) There- 
fore Christ says of John: ‘‘ This is Elias which 
was for to come.’ (Matt. xi. 14.) 

‘¢ With regard to the nature of the millennial state 
or the blessings which shall be more particularly 
enjoyed during that period, the following things 
seem to be marked out in the prophecy: 

‘¢r,. It is expressly said of those who shall par- 
take of this first resurrection that they shall be 
‘blessed and holy,’ by which the inspired writer 
seems to denote that it will be a time of eminent ho- 
liness. This will constitute the peculiar glory and 
the source of happiness of the millennium state. See 
Zech. xiv. 20, 21. And.that such will be the case 
we may infer, also, from the consideration that 

‘¢2,. There is reason to expect a remarkable 
effusion of the Spirit about the commencement 
of this happy period, even as there was at the first 
setting up of Christ’s kingdom in the world. Be- 
sides the promises of the Spirit which were ac- 
complished in the apostolic age, there are others 
which from the connection appear to refer to the 
time we are now speaking of. Thus Isaiah, 
after having described Christ’s kingdom, which 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 183 


was set up at his first coming, and then the suc- 
ceeding desolate state of the Jews, represents this 
as continuing ‘until the Spirit be poured upon us 
from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful 
field, and the fruitful field be counted for a for- 


? 


est.’ See Isaiah xxxii. 15-19. The apostle Paul, 
speaking of the conversion of the Jews at this 
period, refers to a passage in Isaiah where a 
promise of the Spirit is made to them: ‘As for 
me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord: 
My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which 
I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of 
thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor 
out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the 
Lord, from henceforth and forever.’ (Isa. lix. 
21; also Rom. xi. 26, 27.) The Lord having men- 
tioned the forlorn, dispersed state of Israel through- 
out the nations, among whom they had profaned 
his name, promises to gather them, cleanse them, 
and give them a new heart and spirit, and adds: 
‘And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause 
you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my 
judgments and do them.’ (Ezek. xxxvil. +27; 
also xxxix. 28, 29.) The promise of pouring on 
them the spirit of grace and supplication has also 
a view to this period. (Zech. xii. 10.) Though 
We are not to expect the miraculous gifts of the 


184 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


apostolic age, the work of the Spirit will abun- | 
dantly appear in qualifying men for propagating 
the gospel throughout the world, filling them with _ 
light, zeal, courage, and activity in that work; in 
giving success and effect to the gospel by convert- 
ing multitudes to the faith, quickening the dead in _ 
trespasses and sins, and translating them into the 
kingdom of Christ; and in enlightening, quick- 
ening, purifying, and comforting the children of 
God, stirring them up to greater liveliness, love, 
zeal, activity, and fruitfulness in his service. 

«©3. A universal spread of the gospel, diffusing 
the knowledge of the Lord throughout the world 
in a more extensive and effectual manner than 
ever it was before. This is repeatedly promised, 
‘The earth shall be full of the knowledge of 
the Lord, as the waters cover the sea’; and this 
shall take place in that day when the Gentiles 
shall seek to the branch of the root of Jesse, 
whose rest shall be glorious, and when ‘ the Lord 
shall set his hand again the second time to recover 
the remnant of his people,’ and ‘shall set up an 
ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the out- 
casts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of 
Judah from the four corners of the earth.’ (Isa. 
xi. 9-12.) The same promise of the universal 
knowledge of the glory of the Lord is repeated in 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. “385 


Habakkuk ii. 14. This will be attended with cor- 
responding effects: ‘All the ends of the world shall 
remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the 
kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.’ 
(Ps. xxii. 27.) ‘Yea, all kings shall fall down be- 
fore him: all nations shall serve him.’ (Ps. Ixxii. 
tr.) And though we may not imagine that all the 
inhabitants of the globe will have the true and 
saving knowledge of the Lord, we may expect 
such a universal spread of light and religious 
knowledge as shall root up pagan, Mohammedan, 
and antichristian delusions and produce many 
good effects upon those who are not really regen- 
erated, by awing their minds, taming their feroc- 
city, improving their morals, and making them 
peaceable and humane. 

*¢4. The Jew will then be converted to the faith 
of the Messiah and partake with the Gentiles of 
the blessings of his kingdom. The apostle Paul, 
in the eleventh chapter of his Epistle to the Ro- 
mans, treats of this at large and confirms it from 
the prophecies of the Old Testament. He is 
speaking of Israel in a literal sense, the natural 
posterity of Abraham; for he distinguishes them 
both from the believing Gentiles and the Jewish 
converts of his time, and describes them as the 
rest who were blinded, had stumbled and fallen, 


186 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


and so had not obtained, but were broken off and 
cast away. (Rom. xi. 7-17.) Yet he denies that 
they have stumbled that they should fall—that 
is, irrecoverably, so as in no future period to be 
restored; but shows that God’s design in permit- 
ting this was that through their fall salvation 
might come unto the Gentiles, and that this again 
might provoke them to jealousy or emulation. 
He argues that if their fall and diminishing were 
the riches of the Gentiles, and the casting away 
of them was the reconciling of the world, their full- 
ness will be much more so, and the receiving of 
them be life from the dead. (Verses 12-15.) He 
further argues that, if the Gentiles were ‘ grafted 
contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how 
much more shall these, which be the natural 
branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?’ 
(Verse 24.) Nor did he consider this event as 
merely probable, but as absolutely certain; for he 
shows that the present blindness and future con- 
version of that people is the mystery or hidden 
sense of prophecies concerning them, and he cites 
two of these prophecies where the context foretells 
both their rejection and recovery. (Isa. lix. 20, 
21, and xxvii. 9.) 

*©5. The purity of visible Church communion, 
worship, and discipline will then be restored ac- 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 1847 


cording to the primitive apostolic pattern. Dur- 
ing the reign of antichrist a corrupt form of Chris- 
tianity was drawn over the nations, and estab- 
lished in the political constitutions of the king- 
doms which were subject to that power. By this 
means the children of God were either mixed in 
visible religious communion with the profane 
world, in direct opposition to the word of God, or 
persecuted for their nonconformity. In reference 
to this state of things the angel commands St. 
John to leave out the court which is without the 
temple, and not to measure it, for this reason, be- 
cause ‘it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy 
city shall they tread under foot forty and two 
months’ (Rev. xi. 2)—that is, they shall pollute 
and profane the worship and communion of the 
Church during the one thousand two hundred and 
sixty years of antichrist’s reign. So that it can- 
not be measured by the rule of God’s word. 
But when the period we are speaking of shall ar- 
rive the sanctuary shall be cleansed (Dan. viii. 
14); the visible communion, worship, order, and 
discipline of the house of God will then be re- 
stored to their primitive purity, and accord with 
the rule of the New Testament. So it is promised 
to Zion: ‘ Henceforth there shall no more come 
into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.’ 


188 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


(Isa. lii. 1.) ‘Thy people shall be all righteous; 
they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of 
my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be 
glorified.’ (Isa. lx. 21.) ‘And in that day there 
shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the 
Lord of hosts.’ (Zech. xiv. 21.) 

*©6. The Lord’s special presence and residence 
will then be in the midst of his people. Christ 
hath promised to be with his people in every 
period of the Church, even unto the end of the 
world. (Matt. xviii. 20.) He also calls them to 
purity of communion and personal holiness, and 
promises to dwell in them and walk in them (2 
Cor. vi. 16, 17); but this will be fulfilled in an 
eminent and remarkable manner during the mil- 
lennial period. The Lord, having promised to 
raise Israel out of their graves, to gather them 
from among the heathen, and bring them into the 
Church and kingdom of Christ, as one fold having 
one shepherd, adds: ‘And I will set my sanctuary 
in the midst of them forevermore. My tabernacle 
also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, 
and they shall be my people.” (Ezek. xxxvii. 
11-27.) This alludes to his dwelling among Is- 
rael in the tabernacle and sanctuary of old (Lev. 
XXvi. II, 12), and imports his manifesting himself 
unto them, admitting them into the most inti- 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 189 


mate correspondence and communion with him- 
self, in his ordinances, communicating light, life, 
and consolation to them by his Spirit, and also his 
protection and care of them as his peculiar people. 
It is intimated that there will be such visible to- 
kens of the divine presence and residence among 
them as will fall under the notice of the world and 
produce conviction and awe, as was in some meas- 
ure the case in the first churches (Acts ii. 47; v. 
II-13; I Cor. xiv. 24, 25); for it is added: ‘And 
the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify 
Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of 
them for evermore.’ (Ezek. xxxvii. 28.) Indeed, 
this is that very promise represented to St. John 
as accomplished. ‘And I heard a great voice out 
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is 
with men, and he will dwell with them, and they 
shall be his people, and God himself shall be with 
them, and be their God.’ (Rev. xxi. 3.) 

‘7. This will be a time of universal peace, 
tranquillity, and safety. Persons naturally of the 
most savage, ferocious, and cruel dispositions will 
then be tame and harmless; so it is promised. 
(Isa. xi. 6-10.) Whether we consider the per- 
sons represented by these hurtful animals to be 
converted or not, it is certain they will then be ef- 
fectually restrained from doing harm, or perse- 


I90 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


cuting the saints. ‘There shall be no war nor 
bloodshed among the nations during this happy 
period; for we are told that in the last days, when 
the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be estab- 
lished in the top of the mountains, and shall be 
exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow 
unto it, the Lord ‘shall judge among the na- 
tions, and shall rebuke many people: and they 
shall beat their swords into plowshares, and 
their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not 
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they 
learn war any more.’ (Isa. il. 4.) The same 
promise is repeated word for word in the prophe- 
cies of Micah iv. 3. Much to the same purpose 
is the promise in Hosea ii. 18. Though war has 
hitherto deluged the world with human blood, and 
been a source of complicated calamities to man- 
kind, yet, when Satan is bound, his influence 
upon wicked men-restrained, and the saints bear 
rule, it must necessarily cease. 

‘¢8. The civil rulers and judges shall then all be 
maintainers of peace and righteousness. Though 
Christ will put down all that rule, power, and au- 
thority which opposeth the peace and prosperity 
of his kingdom; yet the rulers are the ordinance 
of God, and his ministers for good; as some form 


of government seems absolutely necessary to the 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. ig! 


order and happiness of society in this world, it is 
thought that when the kingdoms of this world are © 
become our Lord’s and his Christ’s the promise 
will be accomplished, ‘I will also make thy officers 
peace, and thine exactors righteousness’; and in 
consequence of this, ‘violence shall no more be 
heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within 
thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salva- 
tion, and thy gates Praise.’ (Isa. lx. 17, 18.) 
Peace and righteousness are the two great ends of 
government. Christ himself is King of Righteous- 
ness and King of Peace, and the civil rulers dur- 
ing that happy period will resemble him in their 
character and administration; for then shall that 
promise be fulfilled: ‘In righteousness shalt thou 
be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; 
for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it 
shall not come near thee.’ (Isa. liv. 14.) 

<¢g. The saints shall then have the dominion, 
and the wicked shall then be in subjection. This 
is clear from the united voice of prophecy: ‘The 
kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the 
kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to 
the people of the saints of the Most High.’ (Dan. 
vii. 27.) ‘The saints of the Most High shall take 
the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever.’ 
(Dan. vii. 18.) The meek shall ‘inherit the earth ° 


192 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


(Matt. v. 5), ‘shall reign on the earth’ (Rev. v. 
10), shall reign ‘with Christ a thousand years’ 
(Rev. xx. 4); ‘they shall be priests of God and 
of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand 
years’ (Rev. xx. 6). The saints are at present 
made kings and priests unto God, a kingly priest- 
hood (x Pet. ii. 9); but then they shall be more 
eminently so, when, by the holiness of their lives, 
the purity of their faith and worship, and their 
diligence in promoting pure and undefiled reli- 
gion, the earth shall be filled with the knowledge 
of the Lord. Then shall that promise be fully 
accomplished, ‘ Ye shall be named the Priests of 
the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our 
God.’ (Isa. lxi. 6.) With regard to the nature of 
their reign it will undoubtedly correspond in all 
respects with the spiritual and heavenly nature of 
Christ’s kingdom, to the promotion of which all 
their power will be subservient. Those who can- 
not conceive of any reign upon earth but such as 
consists of lordly and oppressive dominion, main- 
tained by policy and force, and made subservient 
to the purposes of pride, ambition, avarice, and 
other worldly lusts, can have no idea at all of this 
reign of the saints with Christ, which is a reign of 
peace on earth and good will to men; a reign of 
truth and righteousness, of true godliness and uni- 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 193 


versal humanity. In short, it is the prevalence 
and triumph of the cause of Christ in this world 
over that of Satan and all his instruments. How 
delightful, then, the prospects which open upon the 
eye of faith in the prophetic vision! Christianity 
prevails universally, and the consequences are 
most blissful. Our race assumes the appearance 
of one vast virtuous and peaceful family. Our 
world becomes the seat of one grand, triumphant, 
adoring assembly. At length the scene mingles 
with the heavens, and, rising in brightness, is 
blended with the glories on high. The mysteries 
of God on earth are finished, the times of the regen- 
eration are fulfilled. The Son of God descends. 
The scene closes with divine grandeur: ‘And I 
heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, 
and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice 
of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the 
Lord God omnipotent reigneth.’ ‘The king- 
doms of this world are become the kingdoms of 
our Lord, and of his Christ.” ‘And I saw a new 
heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and 
the first earth were passed away; and there was no 
moresea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, 
coming down from God out of heaven.’ ‘And 
I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Be- 


hold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he 
13 


194 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


will dwell with them, and they shali be his people, 
and God himself shall be with them, and be their 
God.’ ”’ 

Thus we have the doctrine of the millennium, 
and the second coming of Christ as clearly stated 
as it will probably ever be; but I wish to add some 
observations which will no doubt make the above 
more striking to us in this age of Christian progress 
and enlightened thought. 

1. The idea of a personal, corporeal reign of 
Christ on the earth stood in the way of his first apos- 
tles, and accounts for their dullness in apprehending 
the nature of his kingdom. It was expedient that 
he should go away from them, that, under the en- 
lightening influence of the Holy Ghost, they might 
understand the nature of his kingdom, and fulfill 
his purpose in propagating the gospel in the world. 

The tenacity with which they hung to the idea 
that he would restore the kingdom to Israel and 
establish a temporal reign on earth seems never to 
have been gotten out of some of them fully, and 
they all clung to it with tenacity until after the Holy 
Ghost was given. Just on the eve of his ascen- 
sion, ‘‘ When they therefore were come together, 
they asked of him, saying, Lord wilt thou at this 
time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And 
he said unto them: It is not for you to know the 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 195 


times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in 
his own power. But ye shall receive power, after 
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye 
shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and 
in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the utter- 
most part of the earth.” (Acts i. 6-8.) 

The humanity of our Lord seems to have stood 
between these disciples and a full apprehension of 
the spiritual nature of his kingdom. This is seen 
in the defectiveness of their faith. All Israel was 
so blinded that a Gentile rose above them, and was 
honored by Christ, as possessing the greatest faith 
he had found on earth. ‘‘And a certain centu- 
rion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, 
and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, 
he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseech- 
ing him that he would come and heal his servant. 
And when they came to Jesus, they besought him 
instantly, saying, that he was worthy for whom he 
should do this: for he loveth our nation, and he hath 
builtus asynagogue. Then Jesus went with them. 
And when he was now not far from the house, the 
centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, 
Lord, trouble not thyself; for lam not worthy that 
thou shouldest enter under my roof: wherefore nei- 
ther thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: 
but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. 


196 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


For I also am a man set under authority, having 
under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he 
goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and 
to my servant, Do this, and he doeth z. When 
Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and 
turned him about, and said unto the people that 
followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so 
great faith, no, not in Israel.’”’ (Luke vii. 2-9.) 
Here was one man, and he a Roman centurion, 
who believed in the omnipresence of Christ. He 
did not think it necessary for Christ to be present 
in his human nature in order to heal his sick serv- 
ant. No Jew had so apprehended the power of the 
Son of God. They could only be blessed by his 
human presence. And those who insist on a cor- 
poreal reign of Christ on earth fall down to a Jew- 
ish level, and do not stand with the centurion on 
this higher plane. 

2. This failure to understand the true spiritual 
nature of the kingdom of God led the disciples to 
hold an election to fill the place of Judas Iscariot, 
before the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they 
selected two men, and prayed to know which of 
the two the Lord would choose, and the lot fell on 
Matthias—that is, they elected him; it never hay: 
ing occurred to them that the Lord might choose 
some one else, which he did do in the person of 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 197 


Saul of Tarsus. The very argument they used 
for the election of Matthias was the Lord’s reason 
for selecting some other person. ‘‘ Wherefore of 
these men which have companied with us all the 
time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among 
us,’ was their reason for electing Matthias. They 
believed he must be one who had seen the Lord 
in his human nature, while their knowledge of 
Christ’s humanity had made it impossible for them 
to know him as they ought. This idea led the 
first disciples to persecute St. Paul. They de- 
nied his apostleship, because he had not seen 
the Lord in the flesh; hence his defense of him- 
self: ‘‘Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have 
I not seen Christ Jesus, our Lord? are ye not my 
work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto 
others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of 
mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.’’ (1 Cor. ix. 
1,2.) Andagain: ‘‘ Wherefore henceforth know 
we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have 
known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth 
know we him no more.”’ (2 Cor. v. 16.) 

St. Paul is the greatest of the apostles, and the 
gospel he preached is on a higher spiritual plane, in 
many respects, than that of any of the rest of them. 
He knew Christ in a higher and better sense than 
any man who based his knowledge on personal con- 


198 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


tact with hishumanity. To him Christ wasa living, 
spiritual force. While he rejoiced in the anticipa- 
tion of seeing and being present with Christ when 
he should be separated from the body, he declared: 
‘*T am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; 
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life 
which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of 
the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself 
for me.”’ (Gal.ii. 20.) He knew that his gospel 
was the final and complete statement of the plan 
of salvation, and by it the world should be judged. 
He is bold to make this declaration: ‘In the day 
when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus 
Christ according to my gospel.’’ (Rom. ii. 16.) 
He alone is bold to declare that the time of Christ’s 
coming is not at hand. The Church began to be 
troubled with erroneous teaching on this subject in 
the apostle’s day,.and he made a deliverance on 
the subject which was necessary to counteract it: 
‘¢ Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering to- 
gether unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in 
mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by 
word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of 
Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any 
means: for that day shall not come, except there 
come a falling away first, and that man of sin be 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 199 


revealed. the son of perdition; who opposeth and 
exalteth himself above all that is called God, or 
that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the 
temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”’ 
(2 Thess. ii. 1-4.) It is not our purpose to ex- 
plain what is meant by this apostasy, but we sim- 
ply wish to call attention to the fact that St. Paul, 
under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, declared 
that the coming of Christ would not take place 
until certain events in human history should be ac- 
complished. These events have no doubt taken 
place; the falling away is past, and we are liv- 
ing in the dawn of that glorious time of which we 
have spoken at length. 

3. The present century has witnessed the grand- 
est progress of the gospel ever seen in human his- 
tory. Many inventions and discoveries have been 
made, and wonderful have been the achievements 
of science; but above the progress of human 
thought and human enterprise waves the banner 
of the cross; not only abreast, but leading the van, 
are the soldiers of Jesus Christ, until he must be 
blind indeed who does not see signs of the coming 
day. Another century of Christian progress, such 
as we have every reason to expect, will bring a 
period of happiness to the world never before seen. 
Remove sin out of the world, and poverty and suf- 


200 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


fering will go with it; and the thoughtful student 
of our times cannot fail to see that progress is be- 
ing made on all lines of Christian endeavor. Hu- 
man suffering is greatly alleviated by the discov- 
ery of medical science, and the period of human 
life is constantly increasing, while its ills are great- 
ly lessened and its enjoyments multiplied. These 
things are not brought about by miraculous power, 
but by a wise understanding of natural laws and 
spiritual forces, in keeping with the wise purposes 
and plans of our beneficent Creator. 

4. There is much more in every utterance of 
Jesus Christ than we have yet been able to fathom. 
The disciples of our Lord could not understand 
why he should say to them, ‘‘ Nevertheless I tell 
you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go 
away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not 
come unto you; butif I depart, I will send him unto 
you.’? (John xvi. 7.) His spiritual kingdom 
could not be established upon the earth in all its 
fullness and power without a withdrawal of his hu- 
man presence. If he should return in his glorious 
humanity to reign upon the earth, it would imme- 
diately result in the depopulation of every other 
part of the globe except that where his throne shall 
be, for every lover of Jesus would at once flock 
to see him as soon as he could be assured that he 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 201 


had come to earth. Hence he counsels his fol- 
lowers not to pe deceived by any such announce- 
ments. ‘*Then if any shall say unto you, Lo, 
here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there 
shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and 
shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch 
that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very 
elect. Behold, I have told you before. Where- 
fore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the 
desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret 
chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning 
cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the 

west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man | 
be.”” (Matt. xxiv. 23-27.) His coming to estab- 
lish his kingdom, and to bring on the glorious mil- 
lennial day, will be like the lightning, bearing to all 
lands the light and power of spiritual life, unher- 
alded by any advent of his glorious human pres- 
ence. These flashes of light now girdle the earth. 
They spread wider and wider with each decade; 
and as the centuries roll by the heavens will be- 
come aflame with this glorious light, and the world 
will be prepared for the hour of his coming to 
judgment. ‘‘And then shall appear the sign of 
the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the 
tribes of earth mourn, and then shall they see the 
Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with 


202 SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


power and great glory.”’ (Matt. xxiv. 30.) Yes, 
while his coming to judgment will bring joy to the 
redeemed, the tribes of earth who have rejected 
him, and many who have died without his salva- 
tion, shall mourn. 

5. An erroneous faith on this subject opens the 
way to many serious and damaging heresies; while 
it is ground for thankfulness that all who have 
erred here have not gone into the extremes of 
some, yet this is the root from which has sprung a 
materialism as foreign to the Christian faith as it is 
=ossible tor any doctrineto be. One of the heresies 
immediately connected with this Millenarian error is 
that the world is growing rapidly worse; that the 
gospel under this glorious dispensation is a failure; 
and that there is no remedy for this evil but the hu- 
man presence and personal reign of Christ. Anoth- 
er error held by some is that there is nothing in man 
but matter, and at death soul and body both cease 
to exist. It is surprising that any one claiming to 
believe the Scriptures at all could for one moment 
give countenance to such gross materialism, yet 
when men turn away from the true spiritual king- 
dom of Christ they may fall into as rank material- 
ism as an atheist. Under this delusion the Scrip- 
tures are perverted, and their plainest declarations 
wrested out of their true connection, and the whole 


SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 203 


system of divine truth made null and void. But, 
thanks be unto God! ‘‘ we have also a more sure 
word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye 
take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark 
place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise 
in your hearts.’” (2 Pet. i. 19.) For when our 
Lord shall come in person it will unquestionably 
put an end to this earth. ‘But the day of the 
Lord will come as a thief inthe night; inthe which 
the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and 
the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth 
also and the works that are therein shall be burned 
eee (2 Pet. ii. to.) 


: 


+ 


in| wor 


> 


Date Due 


Duke Uni rsity Libraries 


ey 


D01148946x 


“ee 


